The roadshow travels with a team of internationally recognized experts, in the field of energy planning and urban design to help co-create a sustainable agenda cities and neighbourhoods.
The expert roadshow would be invited to The Gelderland in September 2021 to support a process of energy transition in the monumental cities of Elburg and Zutphen. Two cities best known for their cultural heritage and monumental buildings, whose city landscapes and histories present significant challenges in response to future climate change and resilience.
To begin the onsite roadshow initiatives in the Gelderland an interview conversation between Peter Drenth (Deputy Leader, Province of Gelderland) and Prof.Dr. Craig Martin (Leader of the Roadshows) took place in the first roadshow of Elburg that focussed on how to build trust within communities in order to help co-create that sustainable city vision.
The overall aim of the roadshow team is to work closely with people from the hosting city, whether they be city leaders, energy planners, local architect, professionals, academics, students and citizens. The Roadshow normally spends 3 days in each hosting city to deliver energy and urban design fun-shops in which all local stakeholders are welcome and encouraged to join and to take ownership of the final outcomes, outcomes that will allow the cities resources, both people and energy, to be directed effectively, by highlighting the energy challenges and potentials to be found in their neighbourhoods, and to finally present a sustainable ‘City Vision’.
After being postponed twice due to the measures taken as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the energy transition roadshow in Elburg (then immediately after in Zutphen) could continue at the beginning of September. The start took place in Elburg on 1 September. A group of interested parties, participants, civil servants and administrators was present in Restaurant De Haas (which restarted after its closure in 2020). It was the home base for three days of workshops in Elburg. From the 7 September in Zutphen, the work was carried out from Hotel Broedrenklooster. We always spoke to those involved on the basis of different themes to exchange ideas and to launch ideas. Every evening the results of that day were combined, plans were made that were further discussed and worked out the next day. Ten students from the SWAT studio were also involved in each city. Under the leadership of Professor Craig Martin (TU Delft), there was an atmosphere of working together, venting ideas and testing solutions. Also under the roadshow leadership of Craig Martin the specialized teachers Michiel Fremouw, Siebe Broersma and Leo Gommans collected, calculated and processed the first intermediate results in a total plan. Professor Greg Keeffe (Queens Universitty, Belfast) worked with student facilitators to visualize concrete design proposals and Professor Riccardo Puselli (University of Florence) translated all the data into a model in which the CO2 production of the municipalities was translated into areas of forest that should be compensated. Professor Andy van de Dobbelsteen (TU Delft) calculated which possibilities would be realistic at both locations to meet the energy demand in the future in a sustainable way.