Cities of Making

Urban River Regeneration through Nature Inclusive Quays

Following years of decline and offshoring, European cities are being confronted by a range of issues simultaneously: firstly, manufacturing jobs have shifted quickly to services and have created large gaps in the employment market, concepts such as circular economy are being taken seriously by cities and finally new technology is emerging allowing industry to be quieter and more discrete. This may offer a raft of potential benefits, including jobs for sociodemographic groups most affected by unemployment, innovation, more efficient use of materials and urban resilience. Urban centres play an important role in nurturing new forms of green urban manufacturing, based on a clean, knowledge- and labour-intensive manufacturing sector.

Co-creation is key for integrating a diversity of urban activities and needs

Cities of Making (CoM) explores the future of urban based manufacturing in European cities in terms of technology, locally available resources, place and application. 

Based on experience from the city regions Rotterdam, London and Brussels - each with a distinct industrial heritage - the key ingredients that support a resilient and innovative industrial base have been determined in a combination of strategic and action research.

The multi-disciplinary team integrated the key findings of this research and developed a co-creation urban development tool.

Facts

Funder: JPI Urban Europe
Programme: ERA_NET Cofund Smart Urban Futures
Overall budget: € 1.042.250
Grant amount: € 958.742
Contribution to TU Delft: â‚¬ 254.206
Role TU Delft:  Project partner
Project duration: March 2017 - January 2020
TU Delft researchers:                 Prof. Han Meyer
DI. Birgit Hausleitner
Dr. Victor Munoz Sanz

Project partners

Latitude - platform for urban research and design, La Cambre Horta - Faculty of Architecture, Cosmopolis, Faculty of Geography, Brussels Enterprises Commerce and Industry, UCL/RSA