Buiksloterham - Sustainable and circular
A couple weeks ago Judit a collegue from the Sustainable course present us the Buiksloterham district in Amsterdam. It really interest me, and for that reason I want to explain you the main facts of the project. In this area a new type of development which demand news forms of cooperation, roles or different way to plan is taking part.
This type of development is also applied in Grenoble, France. The two projects are developing by City-Zen "program".
The main goal is develop and demostrate the feasibilty of build Zero Energy Cities where the citizens play an essential role too.
23 Partners are working together to achive this amazing district in Amsterdam.
The impacts which they expected are:
- 59.000 tonnes per year of CO2 savings
- 90.000 m2 renovatied residential buildings
- 10.000 connected dwellings with a Smart Grid
Buiksloterham, Amsterdam
The project of Buiksloterham is composed by nine independent Work Packages controlled by different partners.
W1: Ensures an overall management and coordination of the project, and the communication between partners as well as with the European commission.
W2: Initiation of the project.
W3: The objectives is to create innovations that bridge sectors or distinct levels: Design of flexible smart grid ready ventilation for improved air quality. Renovated buildings. Integration of high temperature solar heat.
W4: he main goal of this work package is to create the context for an effective transition towards sustainable smart cities.
W5: The objectives of the demonstrations is to lead to considerable annual savings and efficiency improvements in the field of building, heating and cooling and smart grid.
W6: The objective is to transform the Eco-cité district into an energy positive and carbon neutral area by combining the use of clean and renewable energy sources, saving and controlling energy flows, retrofitting existing buildings.
W7: Improve the transition methodology thanks the feedback of partners of the two cities and experiences form other projects.
W8: Determine the socio-economic impact of the project and thereby generate input for policy development, efficient replication to other cities in Europe.
W9: Ensure a maximum dissemination and deployment of the knowledge gained through this demonstration project.
The OBJECTIVES:
I belive that include the citizens in the hole project and collaborate with them is very important. In that way they are building also a community. This is a huge difference between this project in Amsterdam and HafenCity in Hamburg.
The following points are main objecives of City-zen:
1) Innovation in the urban contexts: By applying (technical) innovations in the cities, they learn how to overcome barriers, how to build business models and how to make technology attractive and friendly.
2) Contributing to the 20-20-20 targets: The City-zen innovations will directly save 59.000 tonnes of CO2 each year, the infrastructure is being used more efficiently and is made futureproof. And future innovations will apply more easily.
3) Institutions, citizens and industries are working together: I feel strongly that create a community is very important to achieve a succesfull sustaible city. In that way the collaboration between the institutions, industries and the citizens is necessary.
"Alone you might go faster, but together we will get further."
4) Energy transition: Giving up the fossil energy and use renewable energies is the future in sustainable cities. Moreover, a game is developed to enable and speed up decision making processes.
5) Upscaling of innovation: City-zen focusses on New Urban Energy solutions, which will help cities to become energy neutral. To clarify what is exactly a energy neutral design; this is a definition: Is a Design of any type (Website, Multi-media, Architecture, Art, Music, Entertainment, etc.) that has the environment and low energy consumption practices in mind during all stages of planning and production.
I think the education is the most important mecanism to spread a sustainable way to live and the necessity of that change. This is why a game developed by city-zen attracked my attention.
They have developed a game for the citizens which shows how much energy are you wasting in your home. And moreover how you can change it, and start saving energy in easy steps. I strongly believe it is an amazing idea to help the people who want to change their way of life but they don't know how to.
But they go even further and they have developed a game which show how to transform a current city in a sustainable city in some years. This is an unbelievable mecanism which provides the government, institutions or municipalities the tools and the steps to start real changes. Maybe seeing the effects of their actions on this simulated reality can bring about a real change in mentality, making people believe that a sustainable future is possible.
In conclusion, most of the lacking points that I found in the HafenCity project have been included here, such as the involvement of the citizens, the education and also try to apply these solutions in other cities. It is not a closed project and for an specific area. We can see how they try to spread the sustainable ideas to others cities developing these kind of games.
