• Type: Research Project
  • Partners: Studio Hartzema, FRESH, Vereniging Deltametropool, NWO, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, European Policies Research Centre, TU Delft
  • Core team: Henk Hartzema, Aikaterina Myserli, Alankrita Sarkar, Paul Gerretsen
  • Collaborators: Nationale Omgevingsvisie –NOVI Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Waterstaat Ministerie van Economische Zaken en Klimaat Interprovinciaal Overleg (IPO) Provincie Gelderland Provincie Noord- Holland Provincie Groningen Provincie Noord Brabant Gemeente Den Haag Gemeente Rotterdam Gemeente Amsterdam Gemeente Utrecht Gemeente Leiden Staatbosbeheer Rijkswaterstaat Arcadis Nederland B.V. PBL Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving
  • Status: Ongoing (projected completion: 2020)
  • Full material at: https://deltametropool.nl/projecten/the-new-planning/

The ‘New Planning’ project aims to stimulate a change in the practice of spatial planning, to bolster resilience, livability and to ensure more sustainable and inclusive developments.

On December 2019 Studio Hartzema and FRESH became active partners with Vereniging Deltametropool in order to create a consortium of academic and social partners to meet the need for a new model of spatial planning for the Netherlands.

The ‘New Planning’ project aims to stimulate a change in the practice of spatial planning, to bolster resilience, livability and to ensure a more sustainable and inclusive development. The project is breaking through the current impasse in the governance of the Dutch territory, and working towards providing a roadmap for the transition of planning institutions, to a new model.

The need for a ‘new planning’ is necessary as the present Dutch spatial planning practice is yet to evolve in a theoretically informed way and thus fails to meet the current challenges. Major initiatives, notably the Environment act is neither connected to the formal planning tools nor the informal institutions. Therefore, this project is building a new model based on in-depth analysis of spatial planning through research and learning from international comparisons, through extensive engagement with societal partners.

The New Planning Dialogue

“The New Planning Dialogue” is a series of interactive practitioner activities, conducting parallelly with the academic research on “The New Planning – Empowering Resilient Societies”.

The eagerness of the practitioners towards the ongoing discussion about the changing systems coping with the transitions in spatial planning led us to initiate the corresponding route of the “The New Planning” project. The goal of the dialogue is to reach out to the public audience who are dealing/ coping with the same challenges in Dutch spatial planning. This way we will make sure that the academic research being done, is being effectively utilised in the real practice. Also, to guarantee a strong theoretical framework in the research outputs, we are planning to open this discussion with the Dutch stakeholders in the review of the evidence, and in identifying significant findings and urgencies. The research will draw on a wide variety of stories related to the spatial planning system. It will involve in particular, local, provincial and regional governments and civil stakeholders in the review and synthesis of evidence.

We propose the dialogue through a series of eight events with the consortia in order to encourage the co-creative network and interactive discussions.

Snapshots of activities implemented within the New Planning project, including the ”Take on the Future” conference, co-working sessions and lectures on the future of Dutch planning.

Various questions will be addressed within a debate format and panel discussions.

— what are the urgencies of Dutch spatial planning agenda?
— how has Dutch spatial planning responded to societal/ technological changes over time?
— what are the alternative instruments or components of a planning model
— how does society need to organise itself in order to become resilient?
— how can spatial planning guidance contribute to empowering resilient societies?

What can you expect from the Dialogue?

— platform to voice your opinions, reflecting upon the spatial planning, development policies and implementation processes.
— opportunity to discuss and share knowledge among peer-group of decision-makers in the Netherlands.
— international reflection on the Dutch spatial planning system and agenda.
— comparative learnings in spatial planning and regional policy approaches across Europe.
— qualitative interviews with key actors and experts.
— podium to put forward the right questions to be researched in relation to the present and future urgencies.
— continuous publication and a dedicated dissemination strategy.
— a side-result: insights into new visualisation techniques.

At the end of two years, the expected products of the co-creative process of the new planning dialogue will be the following.

a publication : combining all the results and process of 2 years.
new model : a co-created framework
research into practice : an efficient working method with the involved practitioners.