(Eye)tracking users’ patterns: visual experience and choice behavior in transition zones of Amsterdam-Southeast

Over the next 10 years, the City of Amsterdam plans to develop major housing schemes provide 90,000 new homes within the existing urban fabric. At the same time, an urban renewal program is being launched to revitalize the most deprived neighbourhoods. Together, these challenges call for more evidence based designprinciples to secure liveable places. Recent development in neuroscience, provides innovative tools to examine in a measurable, cause-effect way, the relationships between the physical fabric, users’ (visual) experience and their behavior in public spaces. In neuroscience, eye-tracking technology (ET) complements brain and behavioral measures (for overview see Eckstein et al. 2017). ET is already used to evaluate the spatial orienting of attention, behavioral response and emotional and cognitive impact in neuroscience, psychology and market research (Popa et al. 2015). ET may also radically change the way we (re)design and thus, experience cities (Sita et al. 2016; Andreani 2017). Until now, eye-tracking pilot studies collected eye fixation patterns of architecture using images in a lab-setting (Lebrun 2016). In our research project Sensing Streetscapes, we take eye-tracking outdoors and explore the potential ET may offer for city design. In collaboration with the municipality of Amsterdam and the local community, the H-neighborhood is used as a single case study. The main focus for urban renewal lies in the “transition-spaces”. They connect the neighborhood with the rapidly developing adjacent areas and are vital for improving the weak social-economic status. The commonly used design principles are validated (Alexander et al. 1977; Gehl 2011, 2014; Pallasmaa 2012) and the consistency of ET is tested, alongside (walk along) interviews and behavioral observations. In the next phase, the data will be analyzed by a panel of applied psychologists and urban designers. The initial results provide valuable lessons for the use of eye-tracking in urban design research. For example, a visual pattern analysis offers more accurate images of the spatial key-elements that matter when moving through transition spaces. More sensory-based city design research is needed to gather a full understanding of the relationships between the configuration of space, users’ (visual) experience, behavioral responses and in turn, perceptual decision making

Progress towards 4DHC in different national and regional contexts

Lessons learned on the progress towards 4th generation district heating (4DHC) are presented from 6 pilot implementation projects in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands (HeatNet project). The pilots have implemented the infrastructure for district heating from various (waste) heat and renewable sources to reduce CO2 emissions. With the development of long term road maps, progress is made towards the role out of 4DHC in the regions. The pilots have a different level of experience with district heating and transnational learning is specifically addressed. Purpose of the evaluation of the pilots is to give local authorities insight into barriers and solutions and the way they are closely linked to stakeholders in their geographical, political and cultural context in NWE. To do this, the financial, regulatory and organisational barriers the pilots face and possible solutions that were shared between the pilots are analysed in the context of system innovation. Differences in national and regional contexts have been analysed to be able to generalise solutions to a level they can be used in a different context. We will confront the pilot’s development with best and worst practice from literature and score Key Success Factors

Reinforcing the inclusivity of spatial planning processes for a sustained impact of urban renewal programs in Amsterdam

As in many large European Cities, Amsterdam is confronted with a large housing boom, partially fuelled by shortcomings in (affordable) housing development. Simultaneously, there is a persistent need to improve neighbourhoods with a weak socioeconomic status. The municipal government aims to both, develop major housing schemes and designate redevelopment areas. In 2017, Amsterdam presented a new urban renewal program for 32 designated deprived neighbourhoods in three boroughs. The program sets out physical housing ambitions, but also intends to anticipate and integrally address social, economic and ecological challenges. To ensure the developments are inclusive, the active involvement of local communities in the decision making process is central part of the new policy. However, a large body of planning literature emphasizes the tendency of large redevelopment processes to become exclusive rather than inclusive. To avoid these pitfalls, new spatial and programmatic governance arrangements may need to be developed. In close collaboration with the municipality and local communities, we conduct empirical action-research on Amsterdam’s urban regeneration program to develop and test promising solutions with practice. The paper analyses the planning process as it evolves. Based on framing theory, we structure and analyse the expected governance barriers hindering the inclusivity during the course of the planning process. The insights gathered regarding inclusivity provide critical input in the conceptualisation of new more forceful inclusive spatial planning strategies. In conclusion, a variety of spatial and programmatic governance arrangements are presented to reinforce the inclusivity of planning processes for a sustained impact of large-scale urban renewal programs

Enhancing Institutional Learning and Embracing Disruptive Interventions as a Bottom-Up Way to Innovate Planning Practice

Amsterdam strives to combat a shortage of homes by launching an ambitious housing development scheme for 32 designated most deprived neighborhoods. After decades of urban renewal projects, the local communities still suffer from difficult to resolve socioeconomic problems. Aside from a minimum of 40% social dwelling units, 40% of homes are reserved for the middle class and only 20% for high-end. Mixing income segments on its own will not lead to an improved socio-economic status of the inhabitants thus, a new urban renewal program has been developed. On top of that, the new progressive municipal council, intends to democratise the urban renewal processes towards more community-led developments with local support and structural solutions. Some experts may argue that we require a radical new way of planning whilst others counter, that current standardised planning procedures cannot be easily changed.In partnership with the municipality, we reflect on Amsterdam’s urban regeneration program and enhance collective crossborder learning by organising monthly learning sessions with the managers involved. Now that the first phases of the planning process have been completed, we follow a Grounded Theory (GT) method to structure the collected data and analyse the perceived barriers hindering the modernisation of planning practice. Observations and promising actions to make the participation process more inclusive, interactive and influential will be discussed. One example is that some managers on the ground who have to work with the system, are taking short cuts in planning procedures to ensure that citizens’ needs are incorporated in the developed plan. These disruptive interventions may be used to formalise and implement new policy and more effective pathways of community-based development

Design Framework for Neighbourhood Resilience: Bridging human and other-than-human perspectives in urban design (concept version 1.2)

This leaflet showcases a design framework for buildingcommunity resilience in urban neighbourhoods. Atits core, the framework challenges designers andother professionals to not only consider resilience inhuman communities, but also in other-than-humancommunities, including plants and animals. Theframework proposes a set of five concepts that helpbridging these two perspectives; each concept describesan important condition for community resilience toemerge for both humans and non-humans

Challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic and design responses in public space: Towards strategies for resilient post-Covid cities

The Covid-19 pandemic triggered governments and designers to revalue and redesign public spaces. This paper focuses on the various design responses to Covid-19 proposed and implemented in public spaces. In particular, we identify the kinds of challenges that such design responses address and the strategies that they use. We selected 56 design examples, largely collected from internet sources. By analyzing the design examples we identified five Covid-related challenges that were addressed in public space: sustaining amenities, keeping a distance, feeling connected, staying mentally healthy, and expanding health infrastructures. For each challenge, we articulated 2 to 6 design strategies. The challenges highlight the potential of public space to contribute to more resilient cities during times of pandemic, also in the future. The design strategies show the possible ways in which this potential can be fulfilled. In our next steps, we will use our findings to develop a program of possibilities; this program will contain a wide range of design strategies for responding to future pandemics and will be made publically accessible in an online database. The program contributes to more resilient post-Covid cities, by offering a variety of possibilities for coping with, and adapting to, pandemic-related shocks and stressors