GWL terrein part of 'The almost perfect urban block' exhibition

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. 

GWL terrein Amsterdam was one of the 15 'almost perfect urban blocks' exhibited at the Moscow Biennale in May 2014. The show, curated TU Delft’s Susanne Komossa, Nicola Marzot and Jonathan de Veen, is now exhibited at TU Delft and can still be seen until December 12th. Click here for more information.

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.