October 8 at Expo Real, 4 pm Holland Property Plaza: presentation Urban Transformation

As urban planner, KCAP is facing the challenges of ecology and constantly strives to develop futureproof and resilient cities for future generations. With our broad multidisciplinary approach to complex design issues, we ensure that sustainability and resilience strategies are incorporated and addressed in a holistic manner on all levels of our designs. To share that experience and show how we are designing solutions for smart and resilient cities, Jeroen Dirckx is joining the Smart Cities mission to New York. The multidisciplinary Dutch delegation will visit and contribute to the Smart Cities New York conference that will take place from May 13th – 15th. In the workshop ‘Climate Resilient Cities: The Dutch Approach’, Jeroen will explain our expertise on resilience with among others the example of our urban plan for HafenCity Hamburg. HafenCity is Europe’s largest inner-city redevelopment project. Being transformed from a former port area into a new city district, HafenCity enjoys a magnificent location at the water. At the same time it has to cope with the risks being located in the flood zone of the river Elbe. The urban plan, that was developed in cooperation with ASTOC starting in 2001, concepts for flood prevention have been integrated right from the start. Instead of building costly dikes that would have also negatively influenced the attractiveness of this unique waterfront location, the area has been designed flood proof. The most important means are that the buildings are built on mounds of 8 - 9 meters above sea levels and streets and bridges are elevated to more or less the same height. This ensures that even during severe storms, the buildings are be protected from flooding and traffic can continue. To add to the attractiveness of the waterfront location, the promenades enjoy the proximity to the water as they remain on the ...

The existing national stadium is next to the Atomium the center piece of the area of NEO Brussels, the urban transformation project of KCAP.  Renovation of the stadium is a radical shift in policy. Previously, the city intended to build a new football stadium on the nearby Parking C area. The city announced yesterday that these plans are now cancelled. The masterplan designed by KCAP, in collaboration with ARUP and Fakton, anticipated on four possible scenarios for the stadium: the renovation of the existing venue, a downsizing of the stadium, a newly built stadium at the same location, as well as the demolition of the stadium. In case of demolition and replacement by a new stadium at a different location, the site would be transformed.It is remarkable and in line with the flexibility that KCAP’s urban concepts offer, that the masterplan’s robustness allows for such a change in policy. Especially since the first and second stage of NEO development are already in planning. The first stage is the Europea project by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield/CFE/Besix, a retail center with cinema, leisure, a roof garden and housing. The second stage comprises of a 5.000-seat congress center with hotel, designed by Jean Nouvel. Meanwhile, also the sportspark is being transformed, following the design of Omgeving and Zwarts&Jansma.  The decision to keep the stadium in place is a tribute to the heritage of this site. The first stadium on this location was inaugurated in 1930 and this is the next step in a succession of transformations. The stadium is very well accessible by public transport with two metro stations. When renovated, it will offer an amazing sports and event infrastructure for the city of Brussels. Especially in combination with the adjacent trade fair facilities, the Palais 12 concert venue and the future congress center.Find here more info about the NEO ...

The City of Hamburg has earned a "Special Mention" by the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize 2018. The biannual international award honours outstanding achievements and contributions to the creation of liveable, vibrant and sustainable urban communities around the world. Our own HafenCity project is one of the central transformation initiatives by the City of Hamburg that helped earn the award. Regarding the HafenCity project, the jury lauds: "Hamburg is recognised as an extraordinary port city that has overcome planning challenges to become an attractive and welcoming city of opportunities for a population that now includes a growing number of immigrants. It has very effectively evolved from previous conventional practice of urban expansion on the fringe through the successful implementation of its inner city densification strategy to cater to increased demand for housing and urban mobility from its growing population. The new HafenCity is an excellent demonstration of this strategy. The former underused harbour and industrial space located next to the historical "Speicherstadt" warehouse district has been transformed from a dilapidated area into a dynamic mix-use district of urban housing, workplaces and recreation areas. Recognising that built heritage is an important aspect that adds to the quality of life in an ever-changing environment, the city placed great emphasis on the urban design of the new district to relate to the old city, and to align vistas with the spires of the old churches while also sensitively providing protection against flooding and rising waters." You can find the full jury report here.

With the winning competition design for the international Convention center and Hotel by the consortium with CFE / Cofinimmo together with Ateliers Jean Nouvel, the second phase of NEO Brussels is taking shape. KCAP, masterplanner of the entire NEO Brussels project, is excited about the progress and the development of a high-quality Convention center. KCAP’s NEO Brussels masterplan prescribes the redevelopment of the Heysel Plateau, one of the most strategic locations in the Brussels Metropole Region. The urban design aims to strengthen the significance of the Heysel and to define it within a framework for sustainable development. The combined Convention center and Hotel will be a valuable anchor within the masterplan that extends the programmatic diversity of the urban development. Its location will tie together Brussels Expo with the larger collection of attractions and natural surroundings. The Convention center as a destination is supported by the high-quality public transport connections proposed in the masterplan and fits within the sustainability strategy of the larger development. The design likewise respects the historic nature of the context, the importance of the Atomium and the vital connectivity of the pedestrian and public space networks created in the masterplan. KCAP supervised the design development during the tender procedure and advised the client (NEO scrl whose shareholding is held by the City of Brussels and the Brussels-Capital Region) during the different dialogue phases. This was conducted in the context of a multi-disciplinary tender team in which experts from the fields of design, engineering, sustainability, legal and financial aspects closely worked with the client to achieve the best possible result. The winning design has been presented by Jean Nouvel on Friday, September 7th, 2018 during a press conference in Brussels.

At the Building Green conference in Copenhagen on November 2nd and 3rd, Jeroen Dirckx, urban planner and associate at KCAP, will introduce KCAP's approach to sustainable urban design and present three international cases as keynote speaker. Since its founding in 1989, KCAP is focussing on realising sustainable urban neighbourhoods with a strong social coherence. With the GWL Terrain in Amsterdam, KCAP pioneered in designing a car-free living environment with communal facilities and urban farming. In Hamburg, we planned the flood-resilient HafenCity urban expansion, one of the largest brownfield developments in Europe, which received a TOD Gold Award. More recently, KCAP leads the multi-disciplinary design team of the CO2-neutral FredericiaC project in Denmark. This transformation of a polluted former harbour area into a vital new city district includes themes like climate change adaptation, urban prosperity, energy efficiency, urban farming, participation, temporary landscape and social cohesion. 

KCAP is one of a range of Dutch architects published in 'Discover Benelux', a special of the Business Inflight & Members magazine of among others British Airways, Swiss Air and the business lounges of KLM and Air France. Click here for the online version. (KCAP on p. 36)  

Brussels will be one of 13 host cities of the Euro 2020 soccer championship. This was announced today by UEFA. A new stadium will be realized in Brussels to accommodate the event. The Eurostadium will be built on parking C within KCAP’s masterplan. After the tournament it will serve as stadium for the Belgian Rode Duivels and RSCA Anderlecht. KCAP, in cooperation with Arup and Deloitte and assigned by the city of Brussels, has prepared the bid book of Brussels for Euro 2020. Currently, KCAP is involved on behalf of the city of Brussels in the tender procedure in which 3 candidates compete for the commission. The final selection is expected in the beginning of 2015. The stadium will be realized by 2019.

Students of the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design interviewed Kees Christiaanse about the furture of urbanisation. Click here to read the interview.

On April 25, the Brussels City Council announced the awarding of the public contract for the first part of NEO Brussels on the Heysel Plateau. The construction of 590 homes, a shopping centre and a new leisure infrastructure has been entrusted to the Unibail-Rodamco / CFE / Besix consortium which was selected above two other competitors. The masterplan for NEO Brussels is designed by KCAP in collaboration with Arup and Fakton. The team has also consulted the city of Brussels during the tender procedure. The work should be able to commence in 2017. More information of this first part of NEO can be found on the project website of 'Europea'.

HafenCity Hamburg is one of nine best projects worldwide that received the TOD Standard in Gold. KCAP’s urban plan for the eco-friendly GWL Terrein in Amsterdam is certified with the TOD Standard in Silver. A global catalog of 50 urban developments on six continents was released yesterday by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP). TOD (Transit-Oriented Development) Standard is an assessment, recognition and policy guidance tool uniquely focused on integrating sustainable transport and land use planning and design.  It shows which projects connect people conveniently, affordably and safely to jobs, shopping, education and other opportunities that cities provide. The evaluation is based on eight principles for better streets and better cities - walk, clycle, connect, transit, mix, densify, compact and shift - which when put into practice, will create vibrant, low-carbon cities where people want to live and work. The certificate gold rewards urban development projects that are global leaders in all aspects of integrated transport and urban design. Silver marks projects that meet most of the objectives of best practice to a high level of quality. Last year, ITDP released the first version of the TOD Standard. The Standard is endorsed by UN Habitat and the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), and is supported by ClimateWorks Foundation. More information about TOD Standard can be found on ITDP’s website.

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) has selected winners in the 35th annual ULI Global Awards for Excellence competition, widely recognized as the land use industry’s most prestigious recognition program. The projects were honored in a ceremony at the ULI Fall Meeting in Chicago. HafenCity Hamburg is one of the twelve awarded developments.

Last week, king Filip and queen Mathilde of Belgium made their joyous entry in Brussels. After a reception in the Brussel's Parliament they went to the main market (Grote Markt) and the city hall. There a few current topics about Brussels’ region were presented, one of them KCAP’s urban regeneration project NEO Brussels.

The German public channel ZDF produced a documentary about Hafencity in their program 'Länderspiegel' in which they show various German cities. It shows nicely the current status of the development. Click here to watch the documentary (in German).

The masterplan by KCAP/ASTOC is nominated as one of 10 international projects for prestigious Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design, organised by the Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, USA. Established in 1986, the Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design is the foremost award recognizing achievement in this field. The Prize is awarded every two years to recognize excellence in urban design with an emphasis on projects that contribute to the public realm of a city and improve the quality of urban life. The jury will announce the winner in March 2013.

The city of Perm was shortlisted as one of 15 projects in the 2012 GUANGZHOU INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR URBAN INNOVATION. The jury received 255 initiatives submitted from 153 cities and from 56 countries and regions out of which 220 were qualified to enter the awards. Of these 220 initiatives, 45 were identified as outstanding initiatives and 15 were selected as submissions of excellence (shortlisted). Finally five winning cities in urban-development initiatives were selected: Kocaeli (Turkey), Lilongwe (Malawi), Seoul (Korea), Vancouver (Canada), Vienna (Austria). Click here for the review of the jury.

Today, the new book over the first decade of Hafencity Hamburg will be officially launched in Hamburg. 

In late September the construction works of the Embankment City Park in Perm, Russia have started. At this moment the asphalt and concrete curbs are deconstructed and the site is being prepared. The process is subdivided in three phases of one year each. The completion of the first phase is planned in August 2013.Click here for a video on local TV channel ‘Rifei Perm’.

During the 48th ISOCARP Congress, that took place 10-13 September 2012 in Perm, Han van den Born and Maria Pidodnia gave an interview about the role of KCAP's Strategic Masterplan Perm in the city's development. They reflected on the future of Perm and highlighted the crutial aspects of the plan itself and its implementation: the idea of a compact city, the necessity of the involvement of citizens and how to plan in correspondence with local building regulations. Read here the article (in Russian).

KCAP Architects&Planners is happy to announce the launch of the Russian version of our website!After finalizing the Perm Strategic Masterplan and several other projects in Russia, our work in the Russian context has become an integral part of our expertise and experience.To accommodate this we added the Russian version as fourth language to our website next to English, Dutch and Chinese.We are happy to use this opportunity to improve the communication with our Russian relations.

On Monday 7th May 2012 the local council of the City of Brussels decided to launch the two procurement contracts which constitute the second phase of the NEO project (redevelopment of the Heyzel Plateau as a strategic centre for international development in Brussels).   See [[file:tweedefaseneo]] for more information.  

Public Polish TV will broadcast a documentary about waterfront developments. The main focus is on the Polish city Gdynia and makes reference to the cities of Hamburg and Rotterdam. A few experts are interviewed in the documentary, among which KCAP urban planners Frank Werner and Jeroen Dirckx.View the trailer here.