Partners Amsterdam Smart City present new activities – recap of our ‘Demo day’

At the end of February, two Demo Days took place for the partners of Amsterdam Smart City. The demo day is part of a series and is intended for Amsterdam Smart City partners to present the progress of various innovation projects, ask for input, share dilemmas and involve other partners in projects. Read on for an update of the Amsterdam Smart City program! The Demo Days started with Smart City Academy masterclasses, by our partner the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.

Masterclass Collaborative Business Modeling

Jeroen Kraaijenbrink gave a masterclass about the collaborative business modeling method. This is a tool to reach a joint business model with various stakeholders and is the result of a European program (SURF Pop Up). Partners applied the methodology and made a collaborative business model canvas. They made a canvas for the De Bretten area, a green zone in the west of Amsterdam which is under pressure because of an increase of houses and people, and for realising an upcycle center, a center that replaces a traditional dumping ground, in the north of Amsterdam.

Photo: Jeroen Kraaijenbrink about the collaborative business modeling

Masterclass Citizen’ Engagement

Marie Morel (researcher Metropolitan Issues) gave insights in the field of community management. What questions should you answer to successfully organize participation? What does it mean to make residents part of the project and your business model? And what do the roles of participants look like?

Photo: Marie Morel about community management

Masterclass Upscaling

Willem van Winden (Professor of Urban Economics) talks about the issues related to upscaling. Why do projects fail to scale up? What do they encounter? Are there any tips and tricks? There are some reasons for projects to stay in a pilot phase: clear ownership is often lacking and for project implementation and upscaling, other people are needed. Upscaling should be an important topic, already in the early stage of a project.

Photo: Willem van Winden and the audience

Projects

The adaptive city

PostNL and Arcadis have jointly started a project to work towards a more adaptive city. A city in which accessibility, quality of life and sustainability are improved by using traffic data. Following feedback from the previous demo day, they have shifted the focus from safety around elementary schools to other transport movements. Arcadis mapped various busy areas in Amsterdam and wants to collect more data to expand the model. Matthijs explains: ‘PostNL has a new perspective on logistics in the city. We want to reduce congestion, noise and CO₂ emissions. In 2025 we want an emission-free city center. To achieve this, we need more companies that contribute.’

Photo: Matthijs Handlogten and Arcadis' visualization of traffic in Amsterdam

Sustainable logistics with a hub
Large organizations such as the municipality, educational institutions and corporates cause many logistical movements in cities because they have to be provided with all kinds of goods and services. Think of the purchase of office supplies, catering, maintenance, construction works and the waste collection. Buyers can play an important role in organizing logistics more efficiently, smarter and cleaner. For example, the HvA and UvA encourage suppliers to supply goods via a hub. Via electric transport, parcels are delivered on the campuses and delivery frequencies have been lowered. Susanne Balm of the HvA calls on members of Amsterdam Smart City to use this purchasing power.

Criteria for local energy initiatives
Nicholas Been, trainee at Amsterdam Smart City is doing a research on how bottom-up energy initiatives were established and how they organize themselves. He also wants to know what these initiatives need to better cooperate with the municipality. With regard to the second issue, he is working on a list of criteria that local initiatives must meet for efficient and effective cooperation. During the demo day, suggestions for criteria were given. For example, having specific expertise and skills and having a good understanding of the frameworks with which the municipality works. The results of Nicholas’ research are posted on amsterdamsmartcity.com.

Digital Perimeter at Amsterdam ArenA

Daan Groenink pitched the digital perimeter, a collaboration between Johan Cruijff ArenA, the police and the City of Amsterdam. The project revolves around the responsible digital use of cameras and sensors during major events, to increase safety. During the European Championship of 2020, UEFA expects physical fences to guarantee safety, but is this the best way? And if we use digital tools, do we always have to tell visitors that they are being filmed? Other partners remarked that a physical fence is a good solution, we always have to tell people that they are being filmed and followed in a certain area, but maybe we don't have disclose the exact location of the camera. Many people asked for a discussion of this topic and the ethical dilemmas in more detail. In March, we discussed this matter with Amsterdammers in Pakhuis de Zwijger.

CATALYST

NEMO explains the CATALYST project, which they are carrying out together with, among others, the Athena Institute of VU University Amsterdam and TU Delft. Residents are asked about their ideas about the increasing digitization and technology. CATALYST has had conversations in the streets, markets and in community centers. The final phase of the project is near. CATALYST will interview various public and private parties. The results will be shared during an event in the summer.

Calls for partners and community

Smart City Expo in New York
Florentine from Amsterdam Trade organizes various international missions to the US. You can join us to the Smart City Expo in New York in May. Like Barcelona, this mission is part of the national smart city strategy. Minister of Internal Affairs, Kajsa Ollongren will host the delegation. Are you looking for opportunities and would you like to join? Check this message and register before the 8th of April.

City-zen Days Amsterdam, 1-3 April 2019

In the first week of April City-zen Days Amsterdam takes place: the event about CO2 reduction in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. Over the past five years, 25 partners have worked on 20 innovative projects in Amsterdam and in partner city Grenoble. Participants at the City-zen Days Amsterdam are presented with a range of topics, ranging from smart grid solutions (charging points with which electric vehicles contribute to 'load balancing' of the network) and district heating (such as using the IJ for residential cooling) to innovative renovations (preserving and making Airey homes from the 60s 21st century proof). Will you be there?

In April and May, we will organize new Demo days! Do you have any questions in the meantime? Drop a line below!

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AMS Institute, Re-inventing the city (urban innovation) at AMS Institute, posted Apr 16th

Do you want to learn from and network with the best researchers and scientists working to tackle pressing urban challenges?

AMS Institute, is organizing the AMS Scientific Conference from April 23-25 at the Marineterrein, Amsterdam, to address pressing urban challenges. The event is organized in collaboration with the City of Amsterdam.

The conference brings together leading institutions in urban research and innovation, thought leaders, municipalities, researchers, and practitioners to explore innovative solutions for sustainable development in Amsterdam and other global cities.

Keynotes, research workshops, learning tracks, and special sessions will explore the latest papers in the fields of mobility, circularity, energy transition, climate adaptation, urban food systems, digitization, diversity, inclusion, living labs experimentation, and transdisciplinary research.

Attendees can expect to gain valuable insights into cutting-edge research and engage in meaningful discussions with leading experts in their field. You can see the full program and all available sessions here.

This year's theme is 'Blueprints for messy cities? Navigating the interplay of order and messiness'.

The program

Day 1: The good, the bad, and the ugly
Keynotes by Paul Behrens of Leiden University and Elin Andersdotter Fabre of UN-Habitat will be followed by a city panel including climate activist Hannah Prins. The first day concludes with a dinner at the Koepelkerk in Amsterdam: you're welcome to join our three-course meal with a 50 euro ticket.

Day 2️: Amazing discoveries
Keynotes by Carlo Ratti of MIT and Sacha Stolp of the Municipality of Amsterdam discuss innovation and research in cities. Corinne Vigreux, co-founder of TomTom, and Erik Versnel from Rabobank will participate in the city panel.

Day 3️: We are the city
Keynotes by Paul Chatterton of Leeds University and Victor Neequaye Kotey Deputy Director of the Waste Management Department of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Ghana. They discuss how we shape the future of our cities together. This will be followed by a city panel including Ria Braaf-Fränkel of WomenMakeTheCity and prof. dr. Aleid Brouwer of the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.

To buy tickets: You can secure your conference tickets through our website.
Dinner tickets: On April 23 we’re hosting a dinner at the Koepelkerk in Amsterdam. Tickets for this can be added to your conference pass or bought separately.

Rihards Dzelme, Inclusive Cities & AI / Trained Architect and Urbanist , posted Apr 15th

We hebben uiteenlopende en interessante reacties ontvangen van stedenbouwkundigen, architecten en gemeenten. Als u wilt weten wat andere professionals denken, vul dan deze enquête in met uw e-mailadres en wij delen de inzichten met u.

Bedankt! 😀

Follow Playground on LinkedIn

We've received varied and interesting responses from urban developers, architects, and municipalities. If you want to know what other professionals think, please fill out this survey with your email, and we will share the insights with you.

Thank you! 😀

Herman van den Bosch, professor in management development , posted Apr 14th

A previous post made it clear that a 15-minute city ideally consists of a 5-minute walking zone, a 15-minute walking zone, also a 5-minute cycling zone and a the 15-minute cycling zone. These three types of neighbourhoods and districts should be developed in conjunction, with employment accessibility also playing an important role.

In the plans for 15-minute cities in many places around the world, these types of zones intertwine, and often it is not even clear which type of zone is meant. In Paris too, I miss clear choices in this regard.

The city of Melbourne aims to give a local lifestyle a dominant place among all residents. Therefore, everyone should live within at most 10 minutes' walking distance to and from all daily amenities. For this reason, it is referred to as a 20-minute city, whereas in most examples of a 15-minute city, such as Paris, it is only about the round trip. The policy in Melbourne has received strong support from the health sector, which highlights the negative effects of traffic and air pollution.

In Vancouver, there is talk of a 5-minute city. The idea is for neighbourhoods to become more distinct parts of the city. Each neighbourhood should have several locally owned shops as well as public facilities such as parks, schools, community centres, childcare and libraries. High on the agenda is the push for greater diversity of residents and housing types. Especially in inner-city neighbourhoods, this is accompanied by high densities and high-rise buildings. Confronting this idea with reality yields a pattern of about 120 such geographical units (see map above).

Many other cities picked up the idea of the 15-minute city. Among them: Barcelona, London, Milan, Ottawa, Detroit and Portland. The organisation of world cities C40 (now consisting of 96 cities) elevated the idea to the main policy goal in the post-Covid period.

All these cities advocate a reversal of mainstream urbanisation policies. In recent decades, many billions have been invested in building roads with the aim of improving accessibility. This means increasing the distance you can travel in a given time. As a result, facilities were scaled up and concentrated in increasingly distant places. This in turn led to increased congestion that negated improvements in accessibility. The response was further expansion of the road network. This phenomenon is known as the 'mobility trap' or the Marchetti constant.

Instead of increasing accessibility, the 15-minute city aims to expand the number of urban functions you can access within a certain amount of time. This includes employment opportunities. The possibility of working from home has reduced the relevance of the distance between home and workplace. In contrast, the importance of a pleasant living environment has increased. A modified version of the 15-minute city, the 'walkable city' then throws high hopes. That, among other things, is the subject of my next post.

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