The city council of Helmond (a city in the south of the Netherland, close to Eindhoven) has approved plans for the construction of their Brainport Smart District (BSD). They will start with the preparation for its first projects, the building of around 1,500 new homes in a totally new suburb; a 12-hectare industrial estate will also be developed as part of this. The new smart suburb will be built over a ten-year period (2018-2028).
There are 7 key elements to the project:
- an attractive built environment;
- resident participation;
- a safe and social neighbourhood;
- a healthy neighbourhood;
- mobility;
- digitisation: and
The development will include: sustainable construction, reuse of materials, mobility services instead of car ownership, electric cars as a starting point, and local food production.
With the council’s decision the way is now clear for the development of the urban development foundations, around which there is plenty of room for innovation. Innovative outcomes from this smart suburb will also apply to other locations in Helmond – both during and after the construction of the smart suburb – thus providing benefits to all citizens of the town.
The new suburb will be designed and developed with the full participation of its future residents. They will have a voice in what the neighbourhood will look like. It will have to be an all-inclusive project; everyone must be able to live in the district.
Three sub-plans underlie the development of the smart suburb.
- Plan of Action – this states which steps need to be taken to realise Brainport Smart District. The programs are described in outline, as well as the implementation agenda, the organisational structure, communication, the budget and the planning.
- Inspiration Book – in this document the seven programs have been worked out in concrete projects / project sheets.
- Public Law Framework and Basic Principles – for the purposes of BSD, a basic urban development framework and a new zoning plan will be drawn up. From here a full development plan will be designed. A Public Procurement and Basic Principles Policy Document has already been drawn up to establish legal certainty. The current policy frameworks are presented for each subject area. Subsequently the spatially relevant starting points for BSD were named, as they were previously included in the Implementation Roadmap.
For more info: info@brainportsmartdistrict.nl
BSD is a collaboration project with Brainport Eindhoven
Brainport Eindhoven is a collaborative project with the Technical University of Eindhoven, the City of Eindhoven and private industry. They recently received a E130-million grant from the Dutch government. They develop technologies that change lives, innovations that make the future better, safer and cleaner.
They are known for their unparalleled innovative strength and their integral and multi-disciplinary way of working. They excel in inventing, developing and integrating the world’s most complex high-tech machines, systems, parts and products with the utmost precision and unprecedented accuracy – machines and technologies that make it possible to create tomorrow’s products and invent solutions for future societal challenges.
Think, for example, of lithography machines that produce chips for 80% of all of the smartphones in the world; smart health innovations developed with doctors and patients; electron microscopes that lead to revolutionary breakthroughs in cancer research,; and of truck platooning initiatives that will soon define the future of mobility.
Within this partnership, they search for technologically applicable and socially innovative solutions – with economic activity and business opportunities as an effect and an increased sense of social security as a result. Website: http://brainporteindhoven.com/
Eindhoven is one of the GSC3 cities and is interested in collaboration with other cities around the globe, including Australia. They are the lead city for smart mobility within the Dutch national smart city plan.
Paul Budde