ASSET: ruimte voor circulaire bouw in de Eurodelta

BVR adviseert het internationale project ASSET (A Spatial Strategy for the Eurodelta, boosting a circular builT environment). Dit is een Interreg North-West Europe project over ruimte voor een circulair gebouwde leefomgeving en samenwerking op de schaal van de ‘Eurodelta’. Elf Leadpartners en circa 40 associate partners buigen zich over de circulaire toekomst van dit economische kerngebied van Europa.

De ruimtelijke strategie circulair Zuid-Holland dient als voorbeeld. BVR helpt mee met het inhoudelijke denkwerk, de voorbereiding van een internationale tour, workshops en de synthese van de resultaten. Deze worden voorjaar 2025 gepresenteerd in het slotsymposium.

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Contact: Bart Bomas

ASSET Key details

Interreg North-West Europe (NWE) project that focuses on understanding the concept of a circular built environment (CBE) by finding innovative spatial solutions through collaboration at various scales within the Eurodelta.

WHO: City of Amsterdam (lead partner), Province of South Holland, City of The Hague, Krefeld Business, Brussels Perspective, Brussels Environment, RWTH Aachen, Delft University of Technology, METREX, Duisburg Business, Vereniging Deltametropool + over 30 associated partners from four countries (Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Northern France) in the following sectors: government, economic/business associations, industry/logistics, academia and civil society
WHERE: North-West Europe (specifically the Eurodelta)
DURATION OF PROJECT: 18 months, starting date: November 2023
ROLE IN PROJECT: external advisor
SUBSIDY TOTAL AMOUNT: 798.066 euro

Project summary

Harbour cities and regions within the Eurodelta, a historically strong economically-related area that covers the Rhine, Scheldt and Meuse delta conurbations (including the Randstad, Brussels and Rhine-Ruhr area) have come together to explore if collaboration can help to accelerate the transition to a circular economy; an economy that promotes value maintenance and sustainable development, creating environmental quality, economic development, and social equity, to the benefit of current and future generations. In a circular economy, the ‘end of life’ concept has been replaced with new concepts like reducing, reusing, recycling, and recovering of materials throughout the supply chain.

This economic shift has spatial implications e.g. for storage, production areas for biobased materials, building hubs, logistic hubs, new industrial sites, etc. A circular built environment (CBE) is a system designed for narrowing, slowing, and closing resource loops at different spatial-temporal levels by transitioning cultural, environmental, economic and social values towards a sustainable way of living. The change to a CBE can result in increased demand for space at one location and less at another; therefore, it requires strong involvement of the economic and social sector in planning and different design principles.

However, the so-called ‘spatial requirements’ – how much land and where it is located – is largely unknown territory. Policymakers are only beginning to realize the far-reaching spatial implications of a truly circular built environment. The objective of ASSET is to develop a strategy and action plan to understand the spatial implications of the circular transition of the built environment for the Eurodelta, as well as to come up with innovative solutions on different scales. By using the Province of South Holland’s Spatial Circular strategy as the base of the research, the project partners focus on two main questions:

What is necessary to develop a spatial-economic strategy and action agenda for the circular transition of the Eurodelta?
Can cooperation between cities and regions in this area help to solve local spatial problems?

By focusing on the construction sector, which is responsible for 40% of the CO2 emission within the Eurodelta, the project partners build on forming an alliance of experts and students on circularity, economics, planning and mobility from the public and private sectors throughout the Eurodelta to gather information, raise awareness, create additional capacity and to discover technological innovations and capabilities within the region.

Final products:

Capacity building by creating a network of governmental institutions, the academic field and the private sector
2 Final publications:
1) Publication containing policy highlights, strategy, action plan & policy recommendations
2) Inspirational publication: Best practices, student work, research & Design Principles
ASSET Conference with publication of a manifesto

Results

The project will deepen the understanding of spatial design of a circular built environment on different scales (building, neighbourhood, city, region and macroregional scale). The project partners will learn from each other’s policies, policy instruments and best practices, and discuss the added value of upscaling initiatives and aligning policies. The professionals will be inspired by student work from across the Eurodelta.

The circular transition and the growing competition of raw materials on the world market requires a new way of thinking within Europe; a way of thinking that is based on cooperation, mission driven and in functional relations.

The insights of the learnings will find their way into local circular and spatial policies, paving the way for actions and cooperation across the Eurodelta.

After 18 months, trust between different partners will be strengthened, ambitions and research questions will be aligned, and a set of actions will be developed to continue the project partners’ work on a circular built environment.

Contact person:

Dagmar Keim – project lead of ASSET (d.keim@amsterdam.nl)

Bart Bomas – external advisor BVR (bart.bomas@bvr.nl)