In 2040, our cities will look very different than they do today. The design study "The City of the Future" is the result of nine months of researching, designing and discussing new ways of making cities.

Throughout 2018, design teams, municipalities and a large network of involved experts worked on integral designs for five 1 kilometer by 1 kilometer test sites in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Eindhoven. Central question: how can the major transitions we face as a society help create attractive and future-proof urban environments?

Integral solutions

The study is a joint initiative of BNA Research, TU Delft, Vereniging Deltametropool, the municipalities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Eindhoven, the Directorates-General for Mobility, Space and Water and Rijkswaterstaat of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management and the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. At a festive closing event on November 30, they presented the results.

For five urban transformation areas, two multidisciplinary teams each conducted design research into integral solutions for the tasks at hand. Which solution direction do they see? How does the city of the future relate to innovations in transportation, circular economy and other system and network innovations? What will the city of the future look like in the near future? And: what recommendations can they give to everyone working on our cities now and in the future?

What is striking is that the starting points have changed from say five years ago: the existing city is central, the position of the car has changed, and it is evident that climate change is forcing action.

Project leader Jutta Hinterleitner: 'The developments related to energy transition, mobility, the climate and circularity are moving so fast that it is necessary to get to work now in concrete terms on the city of the future.'

Concrete steps

Mark Frequin, Director-General for Accessibility at the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment: 'It has become a fruitful collaborative project in which public and private parties, policy, knowledge and practice worked together with great passion and energy. There is now a fine repertoire of design visions and transition solutions that we can take up together. From a truly integral collaboration, away from the box-ticking or sectoral thinking. It is high time for concrete steps and work on system and network innovations. Otherwise we won't make Paris and we won't get the cities of the future we want.'

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