Responsive public spaces use interactive technologies to adapt to users and situations. This enhances the quality of the space as a public realm. However, the application of responsive technologies in spatial design is still to be explored. What exactly are the options for incorporating responsive technologies in spatial designs to improve the quality of public spaces? The book Responsive Public Spaces explores and disentangles this new assignment for designers, and presents inspiring examples. A consortium of spatial designers, interaction designers and local stakeholders, headed by the Chair of Spatial Urban Transformation of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, carried out a two-year practice-based study of responsive public spaces. This book draws on those insights to provide a practical approach and a roadmap for the new design process for responsive public spaces.The study results are of signi¬icance for various professional fields. The book is intended for clients and stakeholders involved in planning and design of public spaces, spatial designers, interaction designers and students.
More than 25!years after Moore’s first introduction of the public value concept in 995, the concept is now widely used, but its operationalization is still considered difficult. This paper presents the empirical results of a study analyzing the application of the public value concept in Higher Education Institutions, thereby focusing on how to account for public value. The paper shows how Dutch universities of applied sciences operationalize the concept ‘public value’, and how they report on the outcome achievements. The official strategy plans and annual reports for FY2016 through FY2018 of the ten largest institutions were used. While we find that all the institutions selected aim to deliver public value, they still use performance indicators that have a more narrow orientation, and are primarily focused on processes, outputs, and service delivery quality. However, we also observe that they use narratives to show the public value they created. In this way this paper contributes to the literature on public value accounting.
The reclaiming of street spaces for pedestrians during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as on Witte de Withstraat in Rotterdam, appears to have multiple benefits: It allows people to escape the potentially infected indoor air, limits accessibility for cars and reduces emissions. Before ordering their coffee or food, people may want to check one of the many wind and weather apps, such as windy.com: These apps display the air quality at any given time, including, for example, the amount of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a gas responsible for an increasing number of health issues, particularly respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Ships and heavy industry in the nearby Port of Rotterdam, Europe’s largest seaport, exacerbate air pollution in the region. Not surprisingly, in 2020 Rotterdam was ranked as one of the unhealthiest cities in the Netherlands, according to research on the health of cities conducted by Arcadis. Reducing air pollution is a key target for the Port Authority and the City of Rotterdam. Missing, however, is widespread awareness among citizens about how air pollution links to socio-spatial development, and thus to the future of the port city cluster of Rotterdam. To encourage awareness and counter the problem of "out of sight - out of mind," filmmaker Entrop&DeZwartFIlms together with ONSTV/NostalgieNet, and Rotterdam Veldakademie, are collaborating with historians of the built environment and computer science and public health from TU Delft and Erasmus University working on a spatial data platform to visualize air pollution dynamics and socio-economic datasets in the Rotterdam region. Following discussion of findings with key stakeholders, we will make a pilot TV-documentary. The documentary, discussed first with Rotterdam citizens, will set the stage for more documentaries on European and international cities, focusing on the health effects—positive and negative—of living and working near ports in the past, present, and future.
PUBLIC PLAY SPACE promotes innovative and creative practices for the co-design of inclusive, cohesive and sustainable public spaces, through the use of games and digital technologies, in a transnational and European perspective, fostering the process of placemaking.Participation of citizens in the design of the public space is recognized as fundamental to build inclusive, cohesive and sustainable public space. As local governments grow more and more interested in civic participation, it becomes important to explore available methodologies addressing challenges related with participatory processes. Games have been proposed since the 1960s as a means of facilitating participatory processes by enabling cooperative environments to shape and support citizens’ interaction. The change led by Information and Communication technologies opens the debate on how advanced technologies, from video games to Virtual and Augmented Reality can help to open the process of co-creation to new audiences, enhancing citizen participation, both with respect to the design and space usage. PUBLIC PLAY SPACE aims to explore the process of development and use of innovative video-games for public space co-design through a wide range of actions targeted at education, knowledge production, debate rising and audience development; it will focus on the following actions:- On-line platform development;- State of the art book development;- 3 Creative & Capacity building workshops on advanced video-games co-development;- 3 Open-Game Events / Public space co-creation workshops with citizens (T: Neighbourhood associations, young people, citizens);- A Co-created touring exhibition on Games for placemaking, taking place in 6 cities;- 1 symposium on games for co-design;- Public Play Space experience book.
The Jean Monnet Chair in Sustainable EU Economy is a teaching and research position awarded by the European Commission to Dr Beata Kviatek and is hosted by the International Business School at Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen, the Netherlands. It is the first time that the Jean Monnet Chair is hosted by a university of applied sciences.Project descriptionThe Jean Monnet Chair is awarded to professors with an excellent profile and expertise in European Union studies, following a positive evaluation of the candidate and the proposed actions by independent experts as excellent with regard to the relevance, quality, and impact. The implementation of the proposed actions is supported by a three-year grant, co-financed by the Erasmus Plus Programme of the European Union and the hosting organisation.GoalsThe Jean Monnet Chair in Sustainable EU Economy, led by Dr Beata Kviatek, aims to:develop knowledge on EU efforts to develop a low carbon, more resource efficient, strong and resilient economy that supports the development of a climate-neutral, green, fair and social Europe;enhance, innovate and promote excellence in teaching and research on European integration and sustainable EU economy at universities of applied sciences and, in particular, business schools;foster dialogue and exchanges of ideas between the academic world, policy makers, businesses, and society at large by providing a meeting place for debate, sharing of knowledge and people-to-people dialogue on European integration and sustainable EU economy.ValorisationThe Jean Monnet Chair (JMC) in Sustainable EU Economy is important because it addresses the challenges society faces by linking local and regional actions with national and European goals for sustainability.The JMC generates knowledge and insights for policy-makers, promotes excellence in teaching and research, fosters a dialogue between the academic world and society, and reaches out to the wider public. In that way the Jean Monnet Chair creates value for the hosting organization as well as the region.The Chair brings the knowledge on EU leadership in sustainability worldwide and the EU priorities and policies for sustainable economy to the classroom and provides guidelines for its broader integration into the business curriculum of higher education. This allows to innovate and update the business curriculum in order to meet the growing need for well-educated, competent professionals who are familiar with a European perspective.The Jean Monnet Chair provides a platform for meeting, debate, and knowledge sharing. In that way the Chair strengthens the social engagement of Hanze UAS locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally, and contributes to the implementation of the Hanze UAS mission and the Strategic Plan.The Hanze motto “share your talent. move the world.” is leading in the work programme of the Jean Monnet Chair that includes promotion of excellence in teaching and research of sustainable EU economy and sharing the gained experience and knowledge with other international business schools and universities.
