Voorstee is the umbrella foundation for green initiatives in the Brandevoort neighborhood. As one of the initiators within Brainport Smart District, the foundation is developing a city farm in The district of the future: a multifunctional center for a social and sustainable Helmond.
New location
The community garden that the foundation laid out a few years ago in Brandevoort has already been given a new location in The district of the future. Residents of Brandevoort are already hard at work in the BSD office farm. The foundation also organizes activities here such as the Pizza Garden, where groups can bake their own pizzas.
City farm
Eventually, Voorstee wants to realize a city farm. The city farm is the inspiration and connection place for residents in the field of circular living. Brandevoort residents can come here for advice and can participate in a ‘climate adventure’ to become aware of the challenge we face as a society. In doing so, the foundation wants to give the climate transition a boost. The city farm will also be a physical meeting place, social workplace and connecting factor.
Interested in the neighborhood garden? Just to have a look, or to help out yourself? Go to the Voorstee website.
Brainport Smart District is one of the six testing grounds in the Netherlands and Flanders that participate in ConnectSME. The aim is to stimulate innovation trajectories of SMEs and SMEs to bring their innovations to the market faster and thus maximize CO2 reductions.
In order to achieve the European climate targets, it is important that sustainable technological innovations find their way to the market more quickly. For many SMEs and SMEs developing sustainable technologies in Flanders and the Netherlands, it is difficult to bridge the so-called ‘Vallei of Death’. A significant amount of capital is often required to bring the innovative product to commercial scale, while potential customers do not yet dare to invest in the innovative products. In addition, it is important to select the right technologies that will maximize CO2 reductions in the long term.
How does it work?
With a consortium of six living labs and two clusters, the ConnectSME project facilitates demonstration projects for sustainable technological innovations in Flanders and the South of the Netherlands. The living labs provide a development and demonstration environment for innovative technologies, according to a user-oriented, open innovation ecosystem.
Selected SMEs and SMEs receive vouchers with which they receive advice and the opportunity to demonstrate and develop their innovation in this physical test environment. By removing barriers to cross-border cooperation, ConnectSME wants to improve the market introduction opportunities of innovative technologies in the border region of Flanders-Netherlands.
Who can participate?
The ConnectSME project focuses on Flemish and Dutch SMEs and SMEs.
Do you recognize yourself in the points below?
Then be sure to register:
You are active in the border region. More information at www.grensregio.eu
You develop technology that promotes CO2 reduction and climate objectives
With your technology you focus on energy or is related to it
You have already developed your innovation and are looking for a way to scale it
Your innovation is new in the border region
Read more?
Download the flyer about ConnectSME with more information or contact Martijn de Kort.
EIGENAAR PROJECT
ConnectSME
PARTNERS
Thorsite (VITO), Snowball en Green Energy Park in Vlaanderen
The Green Village (TU Delft), Future Energy Lab Metalot (TU Eindhoven) en Brainport Smart District in Nederland
Data Governance: Responsible use of data within Brainport Smart District
How do we handle data in a safe and responsible manner? Partly as a result of the discussions surrounding the Corona App, data use is increasingly the subject of a broad public discussion. Within Brainport Smart District (BSD) we have been working on the subject for some time, with the question in mind: how are we going to give residents of BSD maximum say in the use of data in their smart residential and working district?
Project Data Governance During the BSD Business Network Event on June 25, 2020, Cathalijne Dortmans, alderman in Helmond and chairman of the Brainport Smart District Foundation, discussed extensively how we want to ensure that the use of data in BSD takes place in the most responsible way with maximum control for residents. Peter Portheine, director of the BSD Foundation, explained that the subject of data is already a high priority in the programming of Brainport Smart District. A separate Data Governance project has been set up with the objective of guaranteeing the responsible use of data and technology.
Residents are not part of a tech company’s experiment What makes Brainport Smart District unique is that the area to be developed is both literally and figuratively a greenfield. BSD is a neighborhood in the making: both the houses and the (digital) infrastructure are still under development. It is also unique that BSD arose from a collaboration between government organizations and knowledge institutions and that we are not affiliated with one or a few tech companies. This is often the case in other places where experiments are carried out with smart cities or districts.
Principles and agreements in a Data Manifest BSD is made together with several companies. We have drawn up a Data Manifesto (document in Dutch) to conclude cooperation agreements with these companies. It lays down about twenty principles and intentions regarding the processing and use of data and the access to and use of the digital infrastructure. Parties participating in the development of BSD are asked to make maximum effort to realize the ambitions of the Data Manifesto. By entering into a collaboration agreement with BSD, they are also expected to endorse the ambitions in the Data Manifesto.
Moral Compass The Data Manifesto is a living document. We are innovating and not everything can be determined in advance. What is state of the art technology today may be obsolete tomorrow. One of the tasks of the Data Advisory Team (formerly the Data Governance Board) is to ensure that we conduct the right discussions regarding the use of technology and how we continue to act within the framework of the law.
But it’s not just about technical and legal issues. It often concerns issues of a completely different order. For example: will we behave differently if we know that our behavior can be monitored? What are the conditions under which technology can be used and who determines these conditions? Does the end justify all means? This requires the deployment of external experts in the field of ethics, sociology, behavioral sciences, big data, etc. By setting up an Ethics team in which all these disciplines are represented, we at BSD have a moral compass that ensures that we are on the right course keep sailing.
Ethics Team and Data Advisory Team
The Ethics Team has now been assembled and all members were appointed by the Foundation Board in December 2020. The appointment of the Data Advisory Team will take place shortly.
The district of the future welcomed its first residents in spring 2022. Developer mHome is building a total of 52 homes in Telkesveld. These are modular, sustainable and comfortable 3-room homes, suitable for 1 or 2-person households. The prefabricated rental homes are made exclusively of sustainable and natural materials. The starting point is to develop buildings that are circular, energy-efficient and comfortable. As a result, an ‘mHome’ has a healthy indoor climate and a direct positive impact on both the mental and physical health of its occupants.
Social innovation
When it comes to the development of the Telkesveld neighborhood, everything revolves around the residents. Indeed, everyone is welcome and residents can add something to the community in their own way. Examples include maintaining a communal garden, doing chores for neighbors and contributing ideas on the layout of the communal space located in the neighborhood. Together with the residents, mHome builds a neighborhood in which local residents seek each other out to shape their living environment and bring it to life. This ensures that the Telkesveld project fits in very well with The district of the future.
Modular building method
The nonsubsidised rental homes come in two housing layout types. Both types have an area of about 52 square meters. Only the layout differs, as the homes are built stepwise with the modules placed on top of each other. The homes are modular and easy to link together, similar to building with Lego bricks. A high degree of standardization is combined with flexibility and creativity. In addition, the mHomes are easily repositionable and reusable, so a unit that first functions as a visitor center, for example, can later be used as a home or a home can be converted into an office.
For more information about the homes and registrations, visit the Telkesveld website.
The Smart Cities Innovation Space is an innovation hub where, in addition to technical skills and substantive knowledge, 21st century kills are also central, such as system thinking, interdisciplinary cooperation and an entrepreneurial attitude. Within the Smart Cities Innovation Space, students, researchers, governments and companies work together on solutions for major societal challenges, specifically in the field of Smart Cities.
The Smart Cities Innovation Space is a community that develops and enables interdisciplinary hands-on, challenge-based learning, engineering design and entrepreneurship. We offer a place where students learn to cope with complex social and industrial challenges, develop innovative projects with researchers, companies and other stakeholders. Moreover, it offers space and support for teachers who develop and offer hands-on courses and want to contribute to innovation in education.
OWNER PROJECT
Eindhoven University of Technology
PARTNERS
OPZuid | Europese Unie | Province of North-Brabant | Techno Broker | Omines | Team CASA | VIRTue
PROGRAM LINES
circular district | participation | social and safe district | healthy district | digital district | mobile district | district with energy
How do you want to live in society as it is today and in the future? The Wij zijn IN living concept focuses on collaboration between and with (future) residents who want more than a standard residential product.
Innovation, collaboration and sustainability are key in the ambitions of the Brainport region. That is why Wij zijn IN wants to develop the living concept for BSD together, in which the starting principles are technology, data and focus on the future.
From the start the (future) residents will be involved in the design and in the decision-making on BSD and the use of new technology. Residents are actively involved in and jointly responsible for their own environment. The feasibility of the proposal is currently being investigated. If the outcome is positive, the proposal may well become a reality.
Join in! (Dutch only)
The first step on the way towards making Wij zijn IN a success is to attract (future) residents. The more people join in and get on board, the bigger the chance that the concept continues.
The DGVGroupconsortium contributes with a sustainable smart circular district integrated in a high-quality landscape and in food-providing nature.
The district is designed in order to make optimum use of natural conditions, such as solar rotation in summer and winter, wind directions, north and south side of the home, soil condition, etc. Through smart design and process management an optimum combination of lowtech and hightech solutions is created: with the best from the past, the comfort of the present and readiness for the future.
Disruptive project development, sustainable architecture, choice of materials, circular design of infrastructure, energy balancing, use of water, local food production and circular use of (organic) waste. The DGVGroup team has developed these for ReGen Villages and other projects. The district we will be building in Brainport Smart District is energy-generating, reduces the CO2 footprint and contributes to the health and welfare of its residents. We will create jointly with the residents and collaboration partners ‘the Blossom of Brainport’, a circular integrated district with functions for food production, water purification and circular infrastructure that extend beyond the area itself.
The feasibility of the proposal is currently being investigated. If the outcome is positive, the proposal may well become a reality.
KasCo is a circular residential area in which food, energy and living go hand in hand. Here, you can live in a low-energy home in a greenhouse with fresh fruit and vegetable just outside your door.
The frame of the greenhouse home is made of wood and can be taken apart. Separating the bearing frame and the inside layout makes the house extremely adaptive. This allows residents to create a unique, personalised home within the uniform shell.
The wind and waterproof shell offers many additional benefits: breathing outer walls, ample outside space in the greenhouse and integration of plants (urban farming). And the concept is already a reality: the first KasCo has been built in Amsterdam.
The feasibility of the proposal is currently being investigated. If the outcome is positive, the proposal may well become a reality.
OWNER PROJECT
CC-Studio
PARTNERS
PROGRAMME LINES
participation | healthy district | district with energy
Wanted: innovative residents for our Brandevoort LAB!
In the Brandevoort LAB of Brainport Smart District residents of the present Brandevoort district are invited and challenged join us in developing new products and services that may be realised in the new smart district Brandevoort.
The Brandevoort LAB is a ‘living lab’ for the future of residential living. Together with residents of present-day Brandevoort, the foundation Brainport Smart District and its partners (knowledge institutions and businesses) will test concepts and products, refine ideas, and explore the future, both online and offline.
With our co-creative and participatory way of working, we will ensure together that innovations for the new district will later be well matched to the wishes, needs and daily life of the residents.
How you can join in the Brandevoort LAB will vary from one project to the another, depending on what you want and what organisations want to know or test. It may for example be a survey, a product test or a meeting with residents to discover their wishes and ideas.
In the Brandevoort LAB we focus on a healthy, socially inclusive and safe district, with smart mobility, where data belongs to the residents, an energy-positive district that uses water smartly, a circular district or a mix of these.
Brandevoort LAB will kick off in the summer of 2019. Are you interested in getting to work together with us and our partners? Do you have ideas about smart living and working? Would you like to develop, test and evaluate new concepts, techniques and materials? And do you want to know what new developments there are already in terms of energy, mobility, data, safety, health and/or circular construction? Then register here.
Embedded Fitness develops interactive exercise concepts. The company connects sensors and communication technology to fitness equipment so people are challenged to get fit in a fun way.
In BSD, Embedded Fitness focuses on developing a Smartwalk route lined with SmartStones (posts with beacons inside) that can connect to a smartphone, so that users can walk a particular route through the district. The posts give feedback with LEDs to users that have selected a game or exercise on their app.
The posts work with low-power components and can be charged with solar cells, so that the system is energy-neutral.
Embedded Fitness has been recognised nationally as a SportInnovator centre for Bewegen in het Onderwijs (Exercise In Education). The centre acts as a breeding ground for knowledge institutions, businesses, authorities and schools, in order to contribute positively with evidence-based technological innovations to sports participation to increasing enjoyment of exercising, and to improving the learning performance of young people.
The feasibility of the proposal is currently being investigated. If the outcome is positive, the proposal may well become a reality.
OWNER PROJECT
Embedded Fitness
PARTNERS
TU/e, Fontys Hogescholen, GBO Design
PROGRAMME LINES
participation | healthy district | digital district
