Professionals keep asking where they can find knowledge and guidance when it comes to biodiverse design and building. Next to nextcity.nl’s own ‘First Guide’ (which has been introduced at the Building Holland Fair in March and will be presented on the 22nd of May 2019 at Arcam) the municipality in The Hague published ‘De Stad Natuurlijk’ (The City, naturally) last month which inspires with examples and introduces in more detail the development of a system of points to stimulate biodiverse and nature-inclusive building. I. Mulder of the The Hague Municipality, department urbanism and planning is editor of the publication that has primarily been issued in an edition of 600.

The magazine ‘De Stad Natuurlijk’ (Dutch only) can also be downloaded for free here. All material is (c) Municipality of The Hague.

May 22nd is the International Day of Biodiversity. Architecture Center Amsterdam does not want to let this pass unnoticed and is organizing an evening on nature-inclusive design on Wednesday 22 May 2019.

In 2014, the Amsterdam Architecture Center and landscape architect Maike van Stiphout (DS landscape architects) organized an initial study to increase biodiverstity in the city. Five years later, Maike van Stiphout bundles her findings in the First Guide to Nature Inclusive Design.

Amsterdam is a green city and this makes Amsterdam attractive to live in. Biodiversity is dropping terribly. Designers can do a lot to help nature. On the International Day of Biodiversity, the Amsterdam Architecture Center invites you to join in the discussion about the upcoming Green Vision Amsterdam, Jip Louw Kooijmans tells about how birds adapt to changing circumstances and Maike van Stiphout presents her book.

Program and speakers

Geertje Wijten
Geertje Wijten, Project Leader Green Vision for Spatial Planning and Sustainability of the Municipality of Amsterdam, talks about the plans that the municipality is developing for the Green Vision. Geertje will also ask our guests to think about our green city.

Jip Louwe Kooijmans
Jip Louwe Kooijmans talks about his experience as a program coordinator at Bird Life Netherlands. He is a specialist in the field of birds in urban areas and gives his vision of Amsterdam.

Maike van Stiphout
According to Maike van Stiphout, not only the landscape architect should be concerned with nature-inclusive design, but also the urban planners and the architects. Together we can make a difference. To share her methods, she wrote the first guide for nature-inclusive design, about which will be officially launched this evening.

Day of Biodiversity, Nature-inclusive design
Date: Wednesday, May 22
Time: 8 p.m. start / 7.30 p.m. door open
Location: Architectuurcentrum Amsterdam, Prins Hendrikkade 600
Ticket: € 7.50
Language: Dutch

”Where can we find your theory?” People often ask me after a lecture about nature inclusive design. This guide is the answer to that question”, Maike van Stiphout says in the introduction of “The first guide to nature inclusive design”. “With the projects I realised in my life I changed the world a little. I’m the daughter of a biologist, who became a landscape architect with love for nature. The vast and intricate entanglement of ecosystems and cities has always animated me.”

Landscape architecture is the only profession designing with urban ecosystems. It’s time for architects and urbanists, commissioners and the building industry to join in, because nature inclusive design leads to better quality of life for all beings.

Urban ecosystems are extensive and improving them is a complex task. But many small projects together do have a positive impact. This insight made us decide to create this guide for city builders. The knowledge acquired through the years is crystallised into a compact, practical theory in which you follow three rules to make a nature inclusive project. An easy start for beginners.

And since we have only just begun to build for biodiversity, we call it the first guide. Who’s next?

The guide costs 25,00 euro incl. VAT 9%, exclusive shipment costs. It is also available at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture and at ARCAM (Amsterdam Architecture centre).

For ordering please send an email to info@dsla.nl including number of books, name and directions.  You’ll get in return an invoice with shipment costs and once paid it will be sent to you.

Based upon the notion that buildings are part of urban nature, future tender procedures and selling of land to developers in The Hague will linked to compulsory ‘Green Points’. Depening on e.g. the size of a plot developers and constructors receive e.g. ‘hard’ points for nesting boxes for bats and birds, and ‘soft’ points for green roofs and gardens. The points are legally binding and are a part of the contract when obtaining the plot. Read the press release from 14th of March 2019 from the Municipality online. The system will be introduced step by step, read more on the official municipal documents here (commissiebrief, Dutch only).

In the press release The Hague Municipality explains the ambition to stimulate biodversity: fauna and flora. There are 3 categories such as nesting facilities, green roofs and walls and other measurements in the built environment. The system was developed together with project developers and intends to give clear demands of what is expected by the parties in the design and building sector.

See the documents (Dutch only) of the Municipality of The Hague from November 2016 and October 2016 that are on the basis of this new system of Green Points.

Image courtesy stadszaken.nl, see a recent article on the issue online @ stadszaken.nl.

The winners of the 2019 MIPIM/AR Future Project Awards have just been announced. This year’s awards celebrated 35 projects from around the globe with 15 winning projects being honoured at a prestigious prize giving ceremony and a further 20 being commended for their work. The ceremony was concluded with the announcement of the Future Project of the Year which was won by MVSA Architects + Stefano Boeri Architetti for their Wonderwoods project.

The Mipim/AR Awards promotes excellence in unbuilt or incomplete projects including Big Urban Projects, Sports & Stadiums, Tall Buildings and Regeneration & Masterplanning. See this year’s winners below or click here for a full list of all projects.

The XXII Triennale di Milano, Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival, highlights the concept of restorative design and studies the state of the threads that connect humans to their natural environments––some frayed, others altogether severed. In exploring architecture and design objects and concepts at all scales and in all materials, Broken Nature celebrates design’s ability to offer powerful insight into the key issues of our age, moving beyond pious deference and inconclusive anxiety. By turning its attention to human existence and persistence, the XXII Triennale will promote the importance of creative practices in surveying our species’ bonds with the complex systems in the world, and designing reparations when necessary, through objects, concepts, and new systems.

Broken Nature is composed of a thematic exhibition and a number of international participations solicited through official channels. It will run from March 1 to September 1, 2019.

More info see www.brokennature.org

With the nature award The Green Crown the province of Utrecht encourages everyone to protect nature in this province (image show winners of last edition). The 2019 theme: Nature in and around the built environment. Do you have an initiative with a positive effect on biodiversity in and around the built environment of the province? Then register your initiative by 1 June 2019 at the latest. The winners receive a prize worth € 6,000. Architect Mathias Lehner of nextcity.nl will be part of this year’s jury. More info about the competition is available online.

The Municipality of the Dutch City of Breda has developed a vision for the future that incorporates quality of life and biodiversity as crucial elements with as a goal to be the first European City in a Green Park in 2030.

Nextcity.nl is involved at a special conference on the topic that intends to involve builders, developers and housing corporations. Maike van Stiphout is speaking as key note, and Mathias Lehner is moderator for the entire conference.

Due to massive interest the location had to be changed. More than 200 professionals have signed up by now. Join us via signing up online!

Conference: Breda City in the Park
Date: 21st of March 2019
Time: 12:00 – 18:00 hrs
Location: Podium Bloos, Speelhuislaan 153, Breda (NL)
The conference is conducted in Dutch. English translation available.