Post-war urban neighbourhoods in industrialised countries have been shown to negatively affect the lifestyles of their residents due to their design. This study aims at developing an empirical procedure to select locations to be redesigned and the determinants of health at stake in these locations, with involvement of residents’ perspectives as core issue. We addressed a post-war neighbourhood in the city of Groningen, the Netherlands. We collected data from three perspectives: spatial analyses by urban designers, interviews with experts in local health and social care (n = 11) and online questionnaires filled in by residents (n = 99). These data provided input for the selection of locations to be redesigned by a multidisciplinary team (n = 16). The procedure yielded the following types of locations (and determinants): An area adjacent to a central shopping mall (social interaction, traffic safety, physical activity), a park (experiencing green, physical activity, social safety, social interaction) and a block of low-rise row houses around a public square (social safety, social interaction, traffic safety). We developed an empirical procedure for the selection of locations and determinants to be addressed, with addressing residents’ perspectives. This procedure is potentially applicable to similar neighbourhoods internationally.
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Urban logistics is vital to keep the urban fabric running, but affects liveability while operators also have to deal with shrinking space in which they have to conduct operations. Despite this, there is primarily a lot of focus on decarbonising logistics as well as on logistics concepts to improve the efficiency of urban logistics going into urban areas. In this study we address the spatial footprint of logistics and possibilities to reduce this on a neighbuorhood level. We develop a typology with different archetype neighbourhoods in which we estimate the logistics footprint per area with a decomposition in different logistics segments and number of vehicles towards the year 2035. Based upon that we propose interventions for stakeholders to jointly reduce the negative impact. This study sheds more light on the importance of area.
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With the rise of chronic diseases as the number one cause of death and disability among urban populations, it has become increasingly important to design for healthy environments. There is, however, a lack of interdisciplinary approaches and solutions to improve health and well-being through urban planning and design. This case study offers an HCI solution and approach to design for healthy urban structures and dynamics in existing neighborhoods. We discuss the design process and design of ROOT, an interactive lighting system that aims to stimulate walking and running through supportive, collaborative and social interaction.
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Building Blocks for Liveable Neighbourhoods. Four suburbs in the province of Noord-Brabant are case-studies for a new method of urban development. Participation and scenario's are the starting point. The tools for local stakeholders to (literally) shape their own future environment are the end result.Societal issue: Gap between the plannend world and the daily life in city neighbourhoods. People are eager to take responsibility for their living environment but have no tools or knowledge to do it.Benefit to society: The method developed in this design research project enables the different stakeholders to connect, align and be effective in shaping their common future living environment.
Supermarkets are essential urban household amenities, providing daily products, and for their social role in communities. Contrary to many other countries, including nearby ones, the Netherlands have a balanced distribution of supermarkets across villages and urban neighbourhoods. However, spatial supermarket patterns, are subject to influential developments. First, due to economies of scale, there is a tendency for supermarkets to increase their catchment areas and to disappear from peripheral villages. Second, supermarkets are now mainly located in residential areas, although the urban periphery appears to be attractive for the retail sector, perhaps including the rise of hypermarkets. Third, today, online grocery shopping is still lagging far behind on other online shopping products, but a breaks through will dilute population support for in-store supermarkets and can lead to dramatic ‘game changer’ shifts with major spatial and social effects. These three important trends will reinforce each other. Consequences are of natural community meeting places at the expense of social cohesion; reduced accessibility for daily products, leading to more travel, often by car; increasing delivery flows; real estate vacancies, and increasing suburban demand increase for retail and logistics. Expected changes in supermarket patterns require understanding, but academic literature on OGS is still scarce, and does hardly address household behaviour in changing spatial constellations. We develop likely spatial supermarket patterns, and model the consequences for travel demand, social cohesion and real estate demand, as well as the distribution between online and in-store grocery shopping, by developing a stated preference experiment, among Dutch households.
Researching the enormous VINEX city expansion operations of 1995-2005. The research 'VINEXt' was launched in 2010 in response to an Open Call by the (then) Netherlands Architecture Fund. In VINEXt, we investigate the future-proofing of Vinex districts on a national scale. Using a number of future scenarios, four sample neighbourhoods are being studied to see where opportunities for development in the next 30 years lie or where threats may arise. The knowledge gained will be used to describe building blocks for the transformation of VINEX districts in general.Societal Issue: Times change and so do the inhabitants of modern suburbs. But these neighbourhoods can not automatically absorb these changes - how to stay functional and attractive in a uncertain future?Benefit to society: Working with scenarios provides insight in possible future demands and opportunities, and the extent to which the built environment of the Vinex areas can move with the tides of time.
