In the summer of 2019, the IABR–Atelier Rotterdam carried out two parallel studies into local energy in the Bospolder-Tussendijken (BoTu) neighborhood under the heading ‘Building Blocks for a Cooperative Approach.’ They constituted an investigation into the spatial-energetic building blocks that are required and a mainly anthropological exploration of BoTu’s established and as yet uncharted invisible social networks. The results of these two exploratory studies are employed to take the next step: a LEAP, a Local Energy Action Plan.

^{Potential heat resources in BoTu}

^{IABR–Atelier Rotterdam - PosadMaxwan & Generation.Energy}

Spatial-Energetic Building Blocks
The research into conceivable spatial-energetic building blocks was commissioned by the IABR and carried out by PosadMaxwan & Generation.Energy. It charted the potential for generating, saving, storing, and exchanging energy; identified costs and benefits and ways to create cohesion; and studied the extent to which our efforts to achieve the goal of being CO₂-neutral by 2050 is likely to bear fruit.
The outcome is a package of possible measures that can be assessed by assigning each so-called Spatial-Energetic Building Block a ‘value’ based on questions such as: How does this building block perform in terms of sustainability and on what scale? Does the building block require the involvement of individuals or that of the collective? Can we develop a business case for this building block or does it require public funding?

The study can be downloaded at the bottom of this page (only in Dutch)

Social Networks
The investigation into the role that both established and as yet invisible social networks in the neighborhood can play in the energy transition was carried out by four local parties that know BoTu well and worked closely together: Transformers, Beekhuizen Bindt, Eliza Works, and Steps2Inspiration. The research was also an anthropological exploration of BoTu’s self-image, of the needs and challenges of today, and the requirements and wants for the future with which the residents identify.

The study can be downloaded at the bottom of this page (only in Dutch)

^{(In)visible social networks in BoTu}

^{IABR–Atelier Rotterdam - Transformers, Beekhuizen Bindt, Eliza Works, Steps2Inspiration}

LEAP
In the autumn of 2019, the IABR–Atelier employs the results of the two exploratory studies to take a next step: a LEAP, a Local Energy Action Plan. This involves a new approach to the energy transition. Considering the potential of the Spatial-Energetic Building Blocks, we will explore which trajectories and projects to design and implement a transition path to 2050 that is supported by the district can be realized in collaboration with active and activated local networks.

^{Towards a LEAP}

^{IABR–Atelier Rotterdam © Ooze}

With LEAP, which is being researched and advanced by Rotterdam-based OOZE Architects and Urbanists, the IABR–Atelier Rotterdam delves deeply into BoTu to (be able to) explore how the energy transition can serve as a lever for a broader qualitative leap toward the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals on the scale level of the neighborhood.

CASE 1: OBS DAKPARKSCHOOL EN BINNEN GEBIED
OOZE's design study into an integral approach to making the OBS Dakparkschool and the inner courtyard that this primary school shares with the Center for Culture and Participation (CCPR) and the Rijnmond Multicultural Center Foundation (RMC) more sustainable, is now ready. Availabe in Dutch only, it can be downloaded at the bottom of this page where you can also find an Executive Summary in English.

BoTu becomes a Test Site that can provide new insights and alternative approaches to realizing the energy transition, also in other districts in Rotterdam as well as beyond. This role of BoTu as a social-spatial-energetic laboratory will of course be highlighted during DOWN TO EARTH.

The IABR–Atelier Rotterdam: Energy Transition as Leverage for Socially Inclusive City Making is a collaboration of IABR en the Municipality of Rotterdam (Department of Urban Development and Resilient Rotterdam).

In Rotterdam's Bospolder-Tussendijken district, aka BoTu, work on BoTu Energy District started early 2018. Here, the IABR, together with the City of Rotterdam, the Delfshaven Cooperative, the Havensteder Housing Association, and a growing number of local partners, is working on a strategy in which the energy transition is also used for the social agenda of the neighborhood: How can added social value be generated for all residents, how can we put inevitable energy transition to use as a lever for social equity?

Workshop in Bospolder-Tussendijken

^{picture by Frank Hanswijk}

Survival, First
In Bospolder-Tussendijken, many people are not concerned with the energy transition – no matter how important it is –, but with their own survival. They care about good education, work, decent incomes, good health care, and a clean and safe neighborhood in which they can and want to live, even as they age. This characterizes the challenge: Can a radical energy transition also help the people in BoTu achieve their goals? Can the energy transition be a lever for the creation of a resilient BoTu, a safe, clean, inclusive neighborhood with opportunities for all and with residents that are able to cope with the externally caused impact of the transition?

Bospolder-Tussendijken

^{picture: Frank Hanswijk}

Local Energy in BoTu
Although BoTu is vulnerable, hardly any other neighborhood in Rotterdam can boast as much private initiative: new forms of local democracy, countless young entrepreneurs in maker spaces and all kinds of cooperatives that know how to enter into smart collaborations with more established institutions. BoTu, therefore, seems to comprise the fertile ground necessary for the development of prospects for action that the neighborhood itself can implement to realize the energy transition and later reap the benefits.

In Bospolder-Tussendijken, the IABR–Atelier Rotterdam works with a growing number of partners: the Delfshaven Cooperative, the City of Rotterdam (including: Urban development, Social Development, Resilient Rotterdam, Stadsmarinier), the Metropolitan Region Rotterdam The Hague, Havensteder, ERA Contour, Rebel, BOOR Foundation & De Dakparkschool, De Speeldernis, Rotterdam Academy of Architecture, Veldacademie and many more.

The first edition of IABR–2018+2020–THE MISSING LINK, in the spring of 2018, was all about working toward prospects for action in the Bospolder-Tussendijken neighborhood, aka BoTu. This involved research by design, debates, and expert meetings, but also workshops in the neighborhood that explored concrete cases. In addition, an accessible program for awareness and activation was set up.

In the summer of 2018, Rotterdam’s newly elected Municipal Executive designated BoTu one of the city's first neighborhoods to become gas free in the coming years, in a process embedded in an integrated sustainable area approach. This means that the matter is considered urgent and, even better, that the plans have a likelihood of being implemented. In addition, Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb has asked the neighborhood to come up with a plan to bring BoTu, which is lagging behind socioeconomically, to the average level of Rotterdam in the next ten years.

Launch of Resilient BoTu 2028

^{picture: Arnoud Molenaar}

As a result, a broad coalition is now working on Resilient BoTu 2028, the program having been launched on April 9, 2019.
In short: these are serious dynamics concerning both energy transition and its connection with major social challenges.

Toward 2020
On to the 2020 Biennale, we will work with all stakeholders in BoTu on implementation-oriented projects. We will draw up a plan for the district, design concrete solutions together with the residents and thus also develop skills in the neighborhood to ensure that when the work actually starts after 2020, BoTu will be able to own the energy transition. After all, the energy transition can only succeed if it is widely embraced and starts from the logic of the local residents. Only then will the energy transition actually become an inclusive urban project, aimed at maximizing social added value.

Example: Resilient School De Dakparkschool
The Board of Governors of the BOOR Foundation intends to turn primary school De Dakparkschool (formerly primary school De Boog) into BoTu’s first Resilient School. This is just one example of the way the energy transition is actually appropriated by the neighborhood, in this case by seizing the opportunity to improve the school’s indoor climate and design a climate-proof schoolyard. The roof will be converted into a collective solar roof to produce energy for the local residents and, last but not least, the whole process is used to make pupils more climate conscious as lessons on resilience are integrated into the curriculum.
The Resilient School is one of the ‘first generation’ projects that together will turn Bospolder-Tussendijken into an energy district in the coming years. This strategy is meant to ensure that the energy transition not only actually takes place, but also provides added value to the neighborhood, to all residents, as this is crucial to ensure the public support for the energy transition in this vulnerable area.

Everything, then, comes together in BoTu: social challenges and climate objectives, global tasks and concrete local tasks, the long-term perspective and the implementation of concrete projects in the here and now. Together they will add up to one of Rotterdam’s first energy neighborhoods.