Creating homes with value for society
On 12 October, the online NWA matchmaking meeting 'Creating Homes with Value for Society' will take place. The aim is to find parties who wish to join a trans-disciplinary consortium, with a view to submitting a grant application for the National Science Agenda - Research on Routes by Consortia 2020/21 (NWA-ORC 2020/21).
Despite great prosperity, a rich housing tradition and many technical innovations, the Netherlands suffers from a huge shortage of housing: in particular affordable housing is in short supply. Long procedures, protests from local residents, investments aimed at short-term returns, regulations, restrictions due to nitrogen and PFAS standards: it is a complex challenge to deal with the urgent housing shortage while at the same time meeting the requirements of large and conflicting long-term transition assignments. The housing demand does not only require a technical solution – smart and low-tech innovations need to be embedded in regulation, financing and governance. It also requires support among residents and decisiveness among actors. This is a major challenge, because different domains speak their own language and interests vary widely.
The main goal of Creating Homes with Value for Society is to generate concrete solutions for today's urgent housing challenge, while very clearly focusing on the value(s) for future society. In order to achieve our goal, we are putting together a trans-disciplinary consortium in which the entire knowledge chain is represented and in which we will work together with public institutions and partners from the field. We are looking for trans-disciplinary research methods that can provide new insights.
The project wants to make use of pilots, in which solutions in all their complexity are tested and evaluated for added value. Smart applications, design, planning, regulations, participation, funding, forms of (co-)housing and governance models need to be geared to each other in order to make an optimal contribution to creating new dwellings with value for society. In order to achieve sustainable change, we want to involve both innovators (niche) and established actors (regime) from the entire chain. For a good understanding of social, economic and technical needs, citizen involvement, partly through citizen-science, is crucial. Residents, innovators and established actors are all needed to understand which innovations are necessary and possible, so that pilots can lead to a lasting impact.
This project sees affordable, adequate housing as a necessary condition for a society that values all their citizens. The current housing crisis is being seized as an opportunity to develop integrated solutions in which long-term values serve as a starting point for realising sufficient affordable housing in a sustainable and inclusive living environment in the short term.
Practical information
Participants: researchers, professionals and representatives of organisations in the field of housing and urbanisation. Interested parties from the entire knowledge chain and from various disciplines are welcome.
Programme (pdf)
Location: online; you will receive a link after registration.
Registration: until 6 October 2020 at the latest (12:00). Please send an e-mail to 1MHomes-bk@tudelft.nl with a short motivation (50-100 words max).
Closing date: 6 October 2020
Information about the 1MHomes initiative: www.tudelft.nl/bk/1mhomes