In the future, we will live in cities that are flexible, inclusive and circular. But what exactly does that mean? And how do we get there? Dozens of experts from the construction industry gathered in Utrecht on January 23 and, at the initiative of financial services provider Achmea, pondered those questions.

08-02-2020 17:00 | BY: EDITORS SUSTAINABLEBUSINESS.COM

The location of the event was an appropriate one. Cultural incubator RAUM, located in Utrecht's Leidsche Rijn district, is concerned with the future of the city in many ways. Achmea's Meet Up, called The Future of Living, was a perfect fit.

How will we be living in 30 years?

"Housing is an important topic for us," Liesbeth van der Kruit, director of CSR at Achmea, explains the reason for the event. "Achmea offers many products related to housing, from insurance to mortgages, and as an asset manager we are also active in the real estate market. In doing so, we want to contribute to a healthy, safe and future-proof society. Reason enough to thoroughly explore the future of housing."

"You can do that on your own, but you only gain new knowledge and insights if you get together and talk about it," she continues. "That's why we brought together internal and external experts to explore the future together (and in an approachable way). How do we live 10, 20 and 30 years from now?"

Housing shortages increase

This is an important question, because the Netherlands is on the eve of numerous challenges and changes. From rapidly increasing housing shortages and housing costs to the need to work at breakneck speed on sustainability and the circular economy. But the challenges go beyond that, argues architect Marc Koehler during the event's keynote address. For example, the sense of community, especially in the city, is fast disappearing.

"We are moving more and more toward a society where everyone lives in their own bubble. We have our groceries delivered, watch movies in our home-cinema, the bathroom becomes our wellness center and even meeting the real thing can be done through an app these days," he says. "In other words, individualization is increasing at lightning speed. That brings dangers such as segregation, polarization and alienation. You can already see this happening in Amsterdam, where the income gap between neighborhoods is widening."

The combination of the above challenges creates a perfect storm. The way we live has to radically change on several fronts. And fast, too. Fortunately, there are solutions.

The open city

In his keynote, Koehler argues for open cities: a radically different way of area development that allows for more sustainable and cohesive living environments. The architect is part of OpenBuilding.co, a collective of Dutch architects and designers that gives substance to this vision. An open city is distinguished by three elements:

• Flexibility: open cities consist of adaptable, lifelong housing and buildings that can move with the times.
• Inclusion: open cities promote diversity and a sense of community.
• Circularity: open cities consist of circular buildings and encourage a lifestyle where waste is treated as a resource.

Flexible building

During Achmea's meet up, these elements were discussed in more detail in three separate sub-sessions. Koehler took charge of the first session, on flexible and adaptive building. The architect is an expert in this field and even already puts it into practice. With Superlofts example: loft complexes with a modular design, allowing residents to determine the structure and layout of their living space. Thanks to prefabricated construction methods, the chosen layout can be easily disassembled and modified, allowing the lofts to grow with the changing needs of current (or new) residents.

This will be a open building approach called and is now an international movement. It has many advantages, according to Koehler. "I firmly believe in the vertical city, where we can live in less square footage with more comfort. Open building makes that possible. And their flexible nature greatly extends the lifespan of buildings," he says. "Open building additionally provides a renewed sense of community. After all, residents are involved in the construction of the loft complex from the beginning, creating close contact between different residents from the beginning."

Baugenossenschaften: inclusive and affordable housing

That sense of community is indispensable in the city of the future, agrees Peter Kuenzli, director of Gideon Consult and chairman of Het Rotterdams Woongenootschap. In the second partial session, he elaborated on his great passion: Baugenossenschaften. These autonomous and voluntarily established housing cooperatives are led by residents themselves and are commonplace in our neighboring countries. In the Netherlands, however, they are rare. Kuenzli wants to change, because Baugenossenschaften, he says, are the means to secure inclusion in the city.

"More and more young families are having to leave the city because there is simply no more affordable housing available," he outlines. "Baugenossenschaften can change this, because they are non-profit organizations. After all, their only goal is to create comfortable and affordable housing for their members, which reduces rents by an average of 10 to 20 percent."

Worldwide, this allows millions of middle-class people to still live in cities. In Zurich, for example, 20 percent of all people live in a Baugenossenschaft. In Germany, there are about 2 million. And wonderful things come out of this, Kuenzli knows: "Baugenossenschaften are often at the forefront when it comes to inclusion, innovation and sustainability; after all, they are committed to their own residential and living environment. It is important that they also get off the ground in the Netherlands."

Circular thinking

Doesjka Majdandzic, urban planner for the municipality of Zwolle, elaborated in her partial session on the third requirement for a future-proof city: circularity. There is work to be done there as well, because our living environment is still far from circular. "We all still see our waste as waste and not as raw materials. We mainly own stuff, whereas we should be moving much more toward a sharing economy," Majdandzic outlines the problem. "Also our way of building is totally not set up for the circular economy; everything is glued and glued together, making it almost impossible to use those raw materials for other purposes."

According to Majdandzic, the key to change lies primarily with ourselves: "We have to learn to look at our resources differently. If we learn that, things can happen very quickly. You can already see it happening in mobility, where shared cars are making a rapid rise."

From ego to eco

So we face more than enough challenges when it comes to the future of living. Achmea's decision to think about this together therefore comes at just the right time. Collaboration is more important than ever, Koehler says. This also changes his own role as an architect, from ego to eco: "An architect used to put his stamp on new housing projects, but in the future he will increasingly act as a mediator and spider in the web. The realization of new housing projects will increasingly be a round table, where all those involved have an equal say from the beginning. That saves costs, brings back the sense of community and ensures that we can incorporate sustainability, circularity and flexibility into the plans from the beginning. Collaboration is really the key."