Summary ULI Netherlands Annual Conference

Covid-19 continues to impact our urban environment and the real estate sector is adapting to a rapidly changing future. Going beyond the pandemic, the ULI Netherlands Annual Conference on 7 January, provided an opportunity to explore the following themes:

• Future Proofing a Global City– Paris Case Study
• City vs the Urban Fringe – exploring how local and international cities are adapting to an increasingly dense and hyper-connected world.
• Cultural Placemaking – revival of urban centres
• Re-imagining Urban Futures

Future Proofing our cities: Paris
Paris faces a number of challenges, due to the high building density in the city centre and the increasing and changing demand for housing. Marion Waller, urban planning adviser of deputy mayor of Paris, provided the opening keynote to share how Paris is undergoing a major transformation. The city must evolve to become a green, future proof and integrated city, with designated spaces for urban agriculture.

The concept of a ’15-minute city’, which makes basic necessities accessible within a 15-minute range by foot or bicycle, is being incorporated across the metropolitan area. Marion explained that this is only achievable when the public and private parties cooperate in a partnership. In order to attract the private parties, incentives need to be given, which Paris has delivered through a competition called: Reinventing Paris.

Reinventing Paris changed the way contracts were delivered between the private and public parties, as it was not the highest bid that won the competition, but the best overall project. Criteria that emerged from the competition such as a stronger cooperation to meet the cities long-term, sustainable objectives include:

• Change the construction methods
• Ensure buildings create ecosystems
• Use what is already there (reuse of existing materials)

This allowed the city to address challenges such as responsible construction; a sector that is responsible for using 50% of natural resources and producing 35% of total carbon emissions.

City vs the Urban Fringe – exploring how local and international cities are adapting to an increasingly dense and hyper-connected world.

More and more often we hear that the relationship between the centre city and the urban fringe is changing. Until recently, trendwatchers and policymakers were in complete agreement: the future belongs to the centre city! Increasingly young people and companies wanted to be there to be close to each other, with public transport around the corner.

The boost in convenience and acceptance of working from home, as a result of Covid-19, has lead to a revaluation of (green) space and distance, but it has also caused us to look differently at city and urban fringe. If this trend reverses, what are the consequences for investments in mobility and real estate? And is this simply cyclical (in the 1970s, the centre cities also emptied out) or is something else really going on this time?

In a discussion led by Emile Klep, CEO, Woonplus Schiedam, Marleen Bosma, Head of Research, Bouwinvest, Pieter Klomp, Deputy Director Physical Planning & Sustainability, Gemeente Amsterdam and Dr Tom Daamen, Associate Professor, TU Delft, panellists shared how the city and urban fringe is changing based on the following questions:

Is there evidence of a switch towards the fringe of the city? Marleen shared that some major cities people are moving towards the fringe, yet we need to consider these changes in relation to a city’s boundary and also the long-term changes. Research shows that there is a strong inter-dependency between the total population growth for a city and this is likely to continue to favour city centre growth. We should consider how certain groups tend to demand different living styles and may move towards the fringe (see slide image below).

How can we balance growth vs the quality of living? Back in the day, the focus for real estate development was quantitative rather than qualitive, but today this is different as shared by Peter Klomp. One of the most important aspects of achieving a high-quality, liveable city is the connectivity and stronger collaboration across the city region. Not surprisingly in Amsterdam 60% of city centre transport is by bicycle, but in the city region this is reversed to 60% by car. To address this challenge the city is working on increasing the connectivity of the region to develop a multicentre city.

How can we fund and balance the increasing demand for housing and a need for a liveability? There is a need for greater investment in public and urban redevelopment to meet the housing and liveability needs, according to Dr Tom Daamen. Urbanisation growth is a continuing trend and redevelopment projects tend to create a lot of added value to the metropolis regions. But could it be possible that this added value partly contributes to the wider funding needs? This is a matter of which different instruments are used to realise the funding. Additionally, legal frameworks need to be adapted and government finance is needed to complete the funding plans.

Is there a need for greater government leadership? According to Tom we do not necessarily need more government direction, however it would be beneficial to have stronger direction when working on larger projects. The government is an important partner in influencing city plans and Pieter acknowledged that large scale projects need to be organised nationally, as they influence the wider region. Additionally, mobility is one of the most important aspects when seeking to balance the quality of life for a city centre and urban fringe.

Cultural placemaking – the revival of the urban centres

Creative placemaking plays an integral role in creating resilient and thriving communities. Led by Bob van de Zande and an international multidisciplinary panel of arts, development, regeneration, and investment experts, we explored how culture can be integrated across our decision making, throughout the property and city development lifecycle. Kristian Riis, founding partner of Volcano INC and musician from Denmark, highlighted the necessity of culture in an area (re)development. He stated it should be a key priority in a project, rather than simply the ‘icing on the cake’. Additionally, creative people need an ecosystem that provides a network to connect them to a supportive, creative environment. This has to be aspired during the project process and not only as an addition.

The inclusion of culture should also be viewed in the historical context according to Bernd Stahli, CEO of NSI, who acknowledged that a city was once seen as a monofunctional district, and in recent times cities are changing towards multifunctional environments where almost everything is integrated. Due to this shift in focus, there is still a lot of real estate that is currently underutilised, especially old, industrial zones. As a real estate investor, Bernd stated that he is not the one to initiate the cultural placemaking, however investors have an influence in the areas surrounding their properties, and therefore need to respond to and support creative placemaking. He also recognised that expertise is needed to lead the cultural placemaking for an investor to make a successful start in the transformation of an area, and in most cases real estate investors underestimate how valuable this engagement is.

By sharing international case studies, Sherry Dobbin, partner at Futurecity and chair of the ULI UK Urban Art Forum, highlighted the benefits of engaging in cultural placemaking throughout the regeneration and real estate process. By engaging with the cultural sector at the start, it will be cheaper to sustain the cultural initiatives even though the benefits are not fully understood. However, if you are both working towards a common goal it will then maximise the outcomes throughout the process of regeneration and utilisation of a place. To get the best outcome, it is also important to understand the context of your surroundings, in terms of the assets, neighbourhood, and organisations involved.

‘To achieve successful placemaking, an integrated and adaptive approach needs to be pursued’. Bernd agreed with this statement, adding that bringing together the stakeholders will be the main challenge, due to different goals, financial aspects, and holding periods. Sherry similarly outlined that the (re)development and decision process for a place to become successful should also create a financial uplift for all involved, and therefore provides real estate investors with an incentive to participate in cultural integration as early as possible. While Kristian added that increasingly real estate investors are willing to contribute to placemaking, because they see that an economy can be created around cultural locations, and this is further driving engagement in this area.

In order to achieve successful placemaking, Sherry argued that cultural placemaking has to be part of a project process, not just a separated development. The relationship between the cultural community and activity in the area is very important long before the project is finished. People and the inhabitants of the area need to look forward towards the completion of the project and cultural placemaking can accelerate the project process. The principles and examples for this are outlined in the ULI Including Culture in Development – a step by step guide.

Covid-19 has had a major impact on the cultural sector as highlighted by Sherry. ‘The absence demonstrates the value of the presence’. Currently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all the cultural institutions are closed. As a result, people become more and more lonely, are socially distanced from each other and are craving some sort of social interaction. This proves the value of culture in the city and this moment needs to be captured. Covid-19 provides a perfect moment to use cultural and creative placemaking as a value adding aspect of recovery and urban (re)development.

Re-imagining Urban Futures

Rounding off a packed programme, the closing keynote, Professor Maarten Hajer from Utrecht University, brought forward the importance of creating successful neighbourhoods and communities. Current planning rules and regulations need to be adapted to meet the ecological and climatic demands for our neighbourhoods. This needs to be achieved in order to make it possible for urban innovation and for areas to remain inclusive, and therefore allowing people from different cultures and backgrounds to live together.

There is a new term for this, which Maarten referred to as ‘Futuring’, and recognises a systematic process for thinking, picturing possible outcomes and planning for the future. He emphasised that from an ecological perspective, our urban future will be biobased, which in simple terms means that new and sustainable materials are the future. In the past, people did not realise where the resources came from or the impact these may have on climate or ecology processes. Nowadays with increasing transparency, our awareness of these impacts continues to be exposed.

Further sustainable innovation is needed, and the use of wood is a good example of how a sustainable material can be utilised to meet the building needs of the future. The recent development of Mjøstårnet, an 85 metre, 18-storey timber tower in Norway, and the growing diversity of timber buildings internationally, is proof that we have the skills and ability to adapt our construction needs to meet a sustainable future.

Looking into the future, Maarten emphasised that over the next decade the importance of community and a communal feeling is going to be a more prominent concern. Furthermore, the need to meet sustainability objectives is going to affect the city layout as well as the relation between city and countryside.

The conference highlighted that sustainable and vibrant urban environments are increasingly important and can be addressed in almost all aspects of the real estate market. Leadership by the City of Paris demonstrates that new public approaches can unlock innovation and create inclusive and ecologically sound cities. While stronger collaboration between the urban fringe, city centre and an increasing engagement with cultural placemaking can unlock urban resilience, and create long-term benefits to the industry, cities, and neighbourhoods.

Across the ULI we will continue to explore these themes through our programmes and look forward to reconnecting with you.

For those of you who were unable to attend or would like to revisit the conference, a recording of the event is available on ULI Knowledge Finder. and via the two links below:

Part 1: ULI Netherlands Conference January 2021

Part 2: ULI Netherlands Conference January 2021

A special thank you to all the speakers and our annual supporters.