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Coming to Katendrecht from the Wilhelminapier, you immediately experience its unique character, industrial heritage and the transformations that are happening. That is why we selected this as the area we wanted to work on. Over the last months, we have been investigating the neighbourhood, identifying strengths, challenges and interesting spots to work on.

We have decided to work on Buizenpark as for us, it has the potential to be one of the most attractive areas of the neighbourhood and potentially of the whole city. The park is a quiet spot with a great view on the Maas, but it has the potential to be used more by both local residents and people coming from other parts of the city.

We designed a consultation program for collecting ideas and desires about the future of the park from residents and users. We faced climate challenges that made it impossible to hold the consultation in the park. Nevertheless, we received a great support from

In the last two months we have been around and about in the vibrant and diverse neighbourhood of Afrikaanderwijk in Rotterdam South and we had the chance to get in contact with people living and working in this area. We were inspired and influenced by on going activities initiated by residents, area based entrepreneurs and municipality representatives.

Our first activity in the area took place on a stormy Saturday in February. Next to the monument for the Gastarbeider on Afrikaanderplein, we set up a Turkish tea circle, a wheel of season and storymapping activities. Despite the windy and rainy weather conditions, we got in touch with residents and Afrikaanderplein market visitors and we were able to collect various ideas, impressions and perceptions of the plein.

de Schalm School that kindly hosted on a very rainy Friday afternoon. School children were a great source of ideas and energy, as they pointed out their dreams for the park. We received ideas from parents, park users and local stakeholders and used them as input for our integrated strategy for the park.

Based on the consultation we developed a vision for Buizenpark: an enjoyable place which will enhance interaction between people of diverse socio-economic background.

We foresee that this vision can be achieved through some specific actions, like a community garden, a food kiosk, sheltered benches, a pet service point, a movable stage for performances and a multipurpose playground. We want to share our ideas with residents and local stakeholders, in order to receive feedback and discuss

After the experience of the consultation day we identified several opportunities for the interface area, between the park and the market and spotted potential place-makers among the local people. After assessing different possibilities, our team started developing an integrated strategy for the area including three place-making ideas combining social, cultural and physical aspects of the neighbourhood.

Now, we want to discuss our ideas and strategies together with invited stakeholders in Afrikaanderwijk. We are presenting three place-making projects including a fence photo gallery displaying local art, a pavilion for self-organized activities and a market concept with local character. In cooperation with the neighbourhood we want to develop the ideas further and make Afrikaanderplein a more attractive, used place and focal meeting point of the buurt of Afrikaanderwijk.

conduct our consultation there. This meant unfortunately less participants because we are not as visible or accessible as we would have been in the open-space of Noordplein. But we somehow managed to mitigate this, by dividing our group into two: one group waiting for visitors in-doors and the other walking in the plein and gathering interested pedestrians ideas. Moreover, we placed a banner with a big sign and decorations on the façade of the community center to attract pedestrians.

In the end, the event was a great experience for us; we learned a lot from it and most importantly we were able to gather many ideas and visions of participants from different age groups and income levels. And based on the request of some participants, a second event was planned two days later as a continuation of the consultation, in which more ideas were generated. From the input of all the participants ideas we tried to formulate a common vision, objectives and priority projects for the Noordplein:

Four objectives: “Facilitate and promote various economic activities, collaborations and new linkages between stakeholders, stimulate diverse interactions between residents and non-residents of various backgrounds and create a clean, eco-friendly environment”

And six projects: “Noordplein Themamarkt, Temporary kiosks, Water recreational activities on the Rotte river, Landscaping of the plein, Weekend shows and Sports tables”.

After prioritizing the projects based on feasibility criteria and stakeholder commitment, we are presenting to the public. Finally, revising the proposed projects according to the people’s feedback, we hope to have helped the enthusiastic community of Noordplein take the first steps towards realizing their “Dream Noordplein”.

Since January 2015 our “Oude Noord” team has been working on the Noordplein development to make it a more attractive and better-utilized public space.

Despite its location, less than 10 minutes walking from Rotterdam Centraal, next to the Rotte river and its large area, the Noordplein is usually empty and used just as a crossing route between the shopping streets Noordmolenstraat and Zwaanshals and the river side.

Besides its physical characteristics, the stimulating multicultural environment of the neighborhood and the enthusiastic spirit of the people indicated for our team the high potential of the plein to become a pleasant public place for Oude Noord or even whole Rotterdam.

On the 21st of February we conducted the first consultation event of our place-making activity. We had prepared for all event details, including advertising in advance, inviting residents and identified key stakeholders, preparing the venue in Noordplein itself and the two-hour program, in which we discussed with the participants problems they find in the plein and how they would envision the plein in the future.

On the consultation day itself we had to deviate from our original plan and implement our plan B due to bad weather conditions. We needed to move to an in-doors location, the community center next to the plein and

An attractive and flexible place for economic, social and cultural interactions among

residents and users of Noordplein

Making Buizenpark a better place

Making place togetherin Afrikaanderwijk

During the last few months, students of the USP specialization have been researching different aspects of such areas, interviewing local stakeholders and consulting with residents. Now they have developed integrated strategies to improve the quality of public spaces [see details in other articles].

Presenting back the ideas to citizens and local stakeholders is just the first step of our commitment to make a real impact on the city. We hope for their enthusiasm and engagement to implement some activities in the coming months. From our side, we are willing to provide support with our expertise and make the public spaces of our city work!

We believe that the responsibility for transforming our cities should be shared among different actors. We think that by bringing different forces together we can achieve inclusive and effective ways of making our cities work.

As urban researchers, we have identified public spaces as the key building block of our cities. Streets, squares, parks are the spaces where people meet, discuss and where a lot of economic activity takes place. Therefore, we think that good public spaces – or PLACES - are of key importance for making our cities work. Good public spaces can increase social cohesion, stimulate businesses and real estate and have environmental qualities.

Together with the students of the Urban Strategies and Planning (USP) specialization of our MSc in Urban Management and Development, we have been working on the development of strategies that make public spaces more attractive and used by a number of functions: in one word placemaking! IHS as an academic institution at the crossroads between education, research and practice wants to step out and use its unique holistic perspective to make an impact on the city of Rotterdam.

Working on the ground is part of our training strategies: we want to engage with real cases and continue to contribute to make Rotterdam a better place more than 55 years after being funded to bring the expertise gathered in the post-war reconstruction to the world. Today we bring to Rotterdam urban professionals from all over the world and we want to contribute with our international perspective to the development of the city. Over the last two years IHS has been directly involved in the Zomerhofkwartier through research, education and the development of a number of students’ initiatives.Now IHS is working on real cases in three different areas of Rotterdam.

Placemaking Rotterdam: students, university and residents unite

to make better public spacesNEDERLANDSANDERE ZIJDE!

[ Urban Strategies Planning] [ A. Jachnow; E. Keunen. A. Tsatsou; B. Zamora Auza; C. Capra; A. Maragdouli ] [ IHS ] [ Institute for Housing & Urban Development Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam ] [ www.ihs.nl ]

[ D. Tawakol; E. Kusparyati; M. Kiley; R. Cahyono; O. Arango ] [ contact: donia_tawakol@hotmail.com ]

[ C. Thanner; D. Andoh; G. Mukova; K. Grut; M. Appiah ] [ contact: gloriangela06@gmail.com ]

[ A. Nyarko; A. Sepulveda; E. Kolodkin; M. Tardif; O. Odukoya ] [ contact: katendrecht.park@gmail.com ]

URBANSTRATEGIESPLANNING