SUMMER SCHOOL DESIGN OUR FUTURE WITH DATA (26, 27, 28 AUG 2019)
More than ever we brought the smart city into practice and combined urbanism with technology and digitalisation. During the summer school ‘Design our future with data’, August 26th, 27th and 28th 2019 at several locations in Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands we developed in 3 days a digital twin (a digital 3D-version) of (a part of) the province of Zuid-Holland, which measures and predicts (an aspect of) the happiness and quality of life of the people living in this province. This summer school was commissioned by Province Zuid-Holland.
THE PROVINCE ZUID-HOLLAND
Zuid-Holland is the most densely populated province of the Netherlands. More than 3.5 million people live, work, recreate and travel in an area of less than 3,000 square kilometres. And only 10 percent of the province is available for the function of living. The other 90 percent is filled with, among other things, agriculture and greenhouses, the busiest highways in the country, rail and water ways. And there must also be space for green, because that makes people happy. Also the province has to deal with the biggest sea port of Europe and an airport. It provides economic growth, but also puts pressure on the limited space in the province, environment and quality of life.
THE QUESTION
The Province of Zuid-Holland wants to become the happiest province of the Netherlands. Of course. Who doesn’t? But in reality, the province does not know so well how happy it is. In spatial terms: what the status quo is of the quality of life? Or in tech terms: what data do they need to measure their happiness? Policy and urban design is based on assumptions and a few reports of consultancy agencies. The Province wants to get rid of that. The Province believes in measuring = knowing. But how do you make quality of life measurable? Which data is already available and what do you want to measure? How do you collect the right data, in the right format? And which correlations and relationships can you find within and between datasets? And how do you visualise data so you can make a clear analysis which is understandable for policy- and decision-makers? And how do you translate quality of life into policy or an urban design? 24 young professionals tried to figure that out during this summer school.
We did this with the support of data experts from Civity and the Future City Foundation. They are working on the Smart Urban Development project. The outcomes of this summer school are part of this project.
In teams the participants developed a ‘digital twin’ for Zuid-Holland. The basis is a 3D map of an area. They complemented this with data of environment and planning policy (omgevingsbeleid). But they took it a step further, by making the quality of life predictable. That does not work for the entire province, of course (three days is a bit short). We asked them to work on the following research question:
Develop a digital twin of (a part of) Zuid-Holland that measures and predicts (an aspect of) the happiness and / or quality of life of the people living there.
The Province of Zuid-Holland selected three challenges to work on:
- Natural plant environment & water quality
- Energy transition
- Circular economy and waste management
The Province of Zuid-Holland is looking for brilliant ideas to improve the province. But it should not stop there. The results of the summer school must be practical and applicable, something that will make Zuid-Holland even more sustainable, social and improves the quality of life. In short: make Zuid-Holland happier!
The Jury
The solutions for a happier Zuid-Holland were presented by the participants at the end of the three-day summer school to a professional jury consisting of Jan Roest (manager Implementatie Omgevingswet, Provincie Zuid-Holland), Jan van Boesschoten (Business architect, VodafoneZiggo), Bobby Bahov (Founder & CEO AI Lab / The Mothership Project). We asked the jury to pay attention to the following points:
- Is the result innovative and 10x better?
- Does the solution make (new) connections between datasets / policy areas?
- Is the solution well-founded with (existing) data?
- Can the results be measured and monitored?
- Is the plan feasible?
- Is there a nice balance between dream and deed?
- How did the group work together?
- But above all the jury wanted to be amazed!
The winning project was team 4 – TREEAMTEAM. They came up with a solution for facilitating urban development without losing valuable nature. They purposed to create a data base which maps all the trees in a neighbourhood and show the environmental and social benefits of a tree. This is calculated to a economical value. This way a municipallity has insight in the value of trees in an area with urban development plans. The jury choose this solution to be the winning result because they liked the use of data and the interaction with the environment. Also it is a project which can be implemented ‘tomorrow’ at a municipallity. The winning team received a price of 2000 euros for study purposes.
The Solutions
Team 1
Bahar Sohaleh
Alexandra Willcox
Rembrandt Elberse
Daniël Kraaijkamp
The solution & presentation
The vlog
Team 2
Bart-Peter Smit
Synthia Wierenga
Nasiem Vafa
Niels Wouda
The presentation
The solution
The vlog
Team 3
Esther Wever
Ruben van Huijgevoort
Tessa Speelman
Thijs de Bie
The solution
The presentation
The vlog
Team 4
>>WINNING TEAM <<
Jesse Braaksma
Niels Wäckerlin
Iris van Malsen
Tapasya Mukkamala
The solution
The presentation
The vlog
Team 5
Pasu Chootai
Daan Dirkse
Anne Mahlmann
Lotte Witte
The solution
The presentation
The vlog
Team 6
Yde Jansen
Frederike Zielman
Nathalie Fledderus
Sebastiaan de Jongh
Mohammad Reza Kamousi
The solution & presentation
The vlog
In het Kennislab voor Urbanisme zoeken we nieuwe oplossingen voor bestaande, ingewikkelde, stedenbouwkundige en ruimtelijke problemen. Meedoen? Mail of bel ons dan of vul het contactformulier in.
