What if Lab: the giving city

The giving city

More and more people are moving to cities. Currently, 55 per cent of the world’s population lives in urban areas. By 2050, this is expected to be nearly 70 per cent. This shift is rapidly changing the world and bringing new challenges that affect our quality of life. If we want a sustainable and social future for cities, we need to rethink how we organise, build, and inhabit urban environments. Sweco believes that the city of the future is one that gives back; by offering more than it asks for, allowing humans and nature to live in harmony together. How do we design that city together?

Sweco's What if Lab

For the fourth time Sweco organizes this design challenge in collaboration with What if Lab, a program of the Dutch Design Foundation. Together with creative design studios, we explore unique solutions for our future society. Volle Grond, Fides Lapidaire and Studio Kornelia Dimitrova x Massif Architects, together with experts from architectural and engineering consultancy Sweco, have taken on this unique design challenge. The results are presented during Dutch Design Week.

The city that gives back - the concepts

Together with experts from Sweco, Social Designer Fides Lapidaire created the Give Shop, a reverse gift shop. It’s a popup shop that highlights giving as a cornerstone of area development. In our consumer society, people are encouraged to take in many aspects of life. With the Give Shop, Lapidaire aims to create a context where people are instead inspired to give. Philippe Rol and Lex Hildenbrant collaborated with experts from Sweco on a new approach to designing residential areas. In this vision, meaningful spaces are combined with soil regeneration. By not separating housing and nature but instead seeking a symbiosis, new opportunities arise. Residents can become part of a healthy ecosystem that fosters the development of new nature. Studio Kornelia Dimitrova and Massif Architects explored the train stations of the future. In collaboration with experts from Sweco, they developed a strategic framework featuring various scenarios. This framework enables decision-makers and designers to create train stations that cater to the needs of the community. As a result, stations can provide space for social services, contribute to the local ecology, or become vibrant meeting places.