Upon invitation by Dr.ⁱⁿ DIⁱⁿ Rita Mayrhofer of the ILAP departmentof BOKU University Vienna and the international network Biotope City I am honoured to lecture about our work on the urban development plan of Zaanstad Municipality.

Join us online when I am responding to the question whether the urban development plan for 2040-2050 for Zaanstad, neighbouring city of Amsterdam with 160,000 inhabitants that is set to grow rapidly to 200,000, can enable a good life for everyone within ecological limits.

I am happy to introduce the spatial vision for the future Zaanstad, entitled ‘Creating Space’, which was adopted by the municipal council at the end of 2024. It describes the city’s future qualitative development on the basis of five principles, that address today’s challenges and transitions.

The short lecture followed by discussion can be followed via a Zoom link on the 18th of March, 17:00 -18:00hours.

Wonderful workshop session in January 2025 with multidisciplinary group members including Catharina Vaendel (presenting the results). In this pressure cooker organized by Amsterdam Green Campus we came up with a proposal for a connection of the Amstelcampus of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences across Wibautstraat. A modular wooden trellis spanning the boulevard a as a habitat for many species. Also, it  increases quality of live for humas with extra shade, fine dust absorption and noise reduction. Elevated paths enable the students to criss cross there campus in the greens while clearly marking the entrance of the Amsterdam city centre. Why not just do it?

Thanks for the inspiring lectures by Maike van Stiphout, Gideon Spanjar, Heidi Kamerling en De Onkruideniers organized by Roos van Manen and her colleagues. Photographs by Simon Pasveer. 

Maybe we can meet at the Real Corp conference ‘Boldly go where no cities have gone before’ on urban innovation in Graz from April 14^th to 16^th! I am honoured that my paper “Making Space for Work in Urban Growth: The Case of Zaanstad Municipality” about the Zaanstad Spatial Vision 2040 ‘Making Space’ has been accepted. The focus will be on the need to make space for work within the existing city, and explaining how we think that can de realized.

Yes, the future generations are thinking out of the box! Inspiring final results of the multidisciplinary student teams earlier this week. Next to almost professionally crafted and sleak presentation videos (!) with a lot of drawing work even wonderful maquettes were delivered.

Very cool to have contributed to the design studio of the Future Cities Studies at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences in my role of commissioner, critic and lecturer. Thanks Mariska van Walsum and Erik Anton de Graaf for guiding the course and inviting me to work with the students!

On October 17 students of Journalism and Media at the University of Amsterdam made a short documentary on housing in Amsterdam with a focus on nature inclusive building.

One of the projects, earlier featured in Mathias’ lectures on building for biodiversity, is De Warren, a cooperative housing project designed by Natrufied, (Boris Zeisser and others). Mathias was asked to explain about cost and return of nature inclusive building, as part of his research for nextcity.nl‘s “3rd Guide to Nature Inclusive Building” featuring monetary and non monetary aspects of designing and building for biodiversity.

Watch the short feature video of less then 6 minutes on youtube here.

On October 16 Boris van der Moehlen presented his Master project on the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam. For Mathias as a teacher this was the last commission meeting, preparing the student to be ready for the final presentation.

Boris’ final project proposes a landscape design for an economy of sludge, turning the Belgian polder of Doel into a new form of agriculture with benefits for the Antwerp harbour, it’s economy and river traffic as well as the ecology of this newly developed estuarium between the river Schelde and the Northsea. A strategic and design project taking into account a larger ecosystem and the interdependencies in this time of energy transition, biodiversity loss and climate change.

It was a privilege and great fun to inspire Boris as a teacher and commission member and see his Master projects finding a perfect balance between utopia and dystopia, while at the same time coming up with a realistic proposal, featuring a new form of land use that can be scaled up to other river delta areas around the globe. The team of co-commission members consists also of urbanist Herman Zonderland of Amsterdam Municipality and landscape architect Jan Maas of Boom.

Fully booked celebration of 10 years nextcity.nl at the International Architecture Biennale exhibition in the New Insitute in Rotterdam on the 19th of Sepember. The event was ‘silent disco’ style amidst the exhibition with intimate earphones.

After a lecture by Mathias on 10 episodes of 10 years nextcity in 10 minutes Maike van Stiphout walked with the group through the expo and Sophie Floor Wartenbergh lectured on the development of urban ecology (see picture). A panel with young talent Bas Tibben and Michael Rikkelman concluded the content before the group mingled for drinks and networking on the sunny terrace.

A successful first Masterclass on the Omgevingsvisie Zaanstad (Urban Development Plan) ‘for Dummies’ took place on 27 August 2024. A diverse group became acquainted with this important vision document. Anne Langenesch and Mathias Lehner, both co-authors of the vision, gave a brief introduction and room for discussion and questions. For example, how to best read the vision, and the participants were introduced to the heart of the vision: The Five Principles.

There was also time to work with the vision in a practical way: Together, the participants looked at the year 2042 using self-invented personas, and what the day of these future inhabitants would look like. For example, the twins Summer and Joy (20), whom they had invented, but also the developer Henk (48) and the recently happily divorced and retired Hanneke (68). One thing was quickly clear: these persona’s were enjoying themselves in the future Zaanstad!

The feedback from the participants was too kind. ‘A lot of fun’, ‘Really nice to follow this master class’ and to top it all off: ‘Now I really feel like reading the entire vision!’

Hello everybody!

We kindly invite you for a little gathering celebrating 10 years of nextcity!

Thursday, September 19th, 2024 @ 15:30 hrs, New Institute

We are looking back with friends, but also 10 years into the future of nature inclusive cities with experts, practitioners and young talents. Enjoy a summerly program with little lectures, an informal panel and nature inclusive networking.

The session takes place right in the middle of the main IABR (international architecture biennale Rotterdam) exhibition ‘The Nature of Hope’ in the New Insitute in Rotterdam’s Museumpark. Haven’t seen the IABR exhibiton? This is an excellent opportunity (ticket/museum card required).

At 17:00 hrs we invite you for informal drinks on the terrace.

Join us and dive into the nature-inclusive city, meet inspiring colleagues and make connections!

There is a limited number of seats. Please let us know if you will join us via a short message to 10@nextcity.nl, so we can treat you for drinks and a special gift!

Togthere with Nanine Carree, Miranda Reitsma I was asked to give feedback at the mid term review and the final presentation on June 11the of the design course featuring the N203 at the faculty of Built Environment of the Amsterdam Univesity of Applied Sciences.

The students developed impressive ideas vor future transit oriented development (TOD) along the N203 road and the train stations parallel to it by solving complex spatial puzzles with fresh ideas and the drive to improve quality of life.