The Tors, students Matilde Brambilla, Keisha Griffith, Cassandra van Waveren and Daniël Broomans, are third year students from four different study programmes. They were attracted to the new, adventurous programme of the CGI minor. They got to know each other just a week before they started this project together. They were only able to work together physically for the first few weeks, after which they had to switch to MS Teams due to the corona measures. It was certainly not easy. Cassandra looks back: ‘For me personally it was not much fun to work together via Teams. Communication was really hard, and we got to know each other through screen. That’s not my favourite way.’

Raise awareness
After a semester of hard work, they presented an innovative prototype to representatives of the municipality of Amsterdam, learning director Esther Bouw and SLUISlab lead Karel Koch. Matilde explains: ‘Our concept “Seenergy” stands for “see the energy”. Its objective is to raise awareness about movement – which is synonymous of energy – and how we as people are natural carriers of it. We started from a basic question: what is the most inclusive and used element in a city? The answer: the streets. We wanted to transform those.’

Keisha clarifies: ‘It’s all about activating the routes between the ferry and the tram: how you connect different parts of the Sluisbuurt with each other by moving from one spot to another. We want to help people with their journey through the Sluisbuurt.’

People power
‘So we came up with the idea to position interactive and playful elements that would generate power on the pathways of the Sluisbuurt’, Matilde continues. ‘People will be the ones activating the switch by stepping, jumping or playing on those power generating tiles. Energy will be produced by nothing more than human walking power and it will be collected and re-used based on the needs of the community. The whole community will be involved.’

Keisha explains how it works: ‘The tiles are placed on a generator. When you step on a tile, it makes contact with the generator and then it produces energy. It also collects data: how many steps are there, how much energy is being produced and what can you do with the energy?’

Community and personal rewards
The sum of the collective movements will be displayed on digital information boards around the neighbourhood: in this way the community will be updated of their collective effort. The boards will also explain what the energy is used for. In addition The Tors add a personal reward: data will be sent to a mobile app in which it will be possible to see the individual contribution. ‘This will trigger them and motivate them to move even more.’

Right now it’s not easy to estimate how much the Seenergy concept could contribute to the power supply of the Sluisbuurt. Daniël: ‘Our target is only to empower the concept itself, to make the generator and digital information boards self-sufficient. But there is also an option for the municipality to use the energy for the buildings in the neighborhood.’

Positive impact on the environment
‘Producing enough energy to support the whole neighbourhood is not realistic’, Matilde says firmly. ‘We would have to use every tile in the Sluisbuurt and we would need as many tourists as in the centre of Amsterdam. No, our main focus is to create awareness about movement, health and energy.’ Keisha adds: ‘Right now we’re in a lockdown, which is leading us all to go out for a walk more often. This made us think: let’s add some fun to a walk through the neighbourhood, by showing people their own positive impact on the environment.’

The team made an attractive brochure with a map that shows each group of tiles, with a different look and purpose. Cassandra is especially happy with their idea of the street art tiles in the main street: ‘Right there we want to put down 500 tiles with street art. They will be so big and colourful!’ Daniël agrees, ‘not only because it will be crowded and many footsteps will be made there, but also because of the cocreation: inhabitants of the island designing the tiles.’ The Tors want to cooperate with artists, but also with local schools, so kids can help designing the 500 tiles in the main street. Every year they can be modified by different artists or schools – or a school in collaboration with an artist. Truly a Creative Growth Initiative by neighbours for neighbours!

‘Why not do something like this?’
Amongst the representatives of the municipality of Amsterdam were Mirjana Milanovic, senior lead designer Sluisbuurt, and Jan Straub, senior project manager Zeeburgereiland. After watching the presentations of all CGI-teams, they responded: ‘Why not do something like this?’ They were very impressed by this innovative concept and praised the synergy of different aspects: health and well-being on the one side, and sustainability and building a community on the other side.

‘I think we have developed a concept that we can really be proud of!’, Cassandra concludes.

'We wanted to hold this kick-off at the construction site of the future Sluisbuurt', explains Karel Koch, lab leader at the SLUISlab. The site is being readied for construction Amsterdam municipal engineering office and the construction company Dura Vermeer. Over the next ten years, these two partners will bear joint responsibility for the development of this new neighbourhood. 'Currently, we are hard at work preparing for the infrastructure', Karel says. 'While the site itself is not yet safe enough, we did manage to get permission to organise our kick-off week right next door at ‘Keet Zeeburgereiland.'

Nautilus
'The plan was to move our SLUISlab into a temporary location in the Sluisbuurt starting in September 2020', Karel continues. 'The idea was to have a temporary café as well, but the city has put those plans on hold for the time being. We did, however, find a place in a building in the adjacent neighbourhood, the Sportheldenbuurt: Nautilus. From now on, the SLUISlab researchers will be there every Thursday, together with CGI learning coordinator Esther Bouw and her students.'

Esther Bouw adds: 'Community surveys and trying out new things are important to the CGI students, and with an eye to doing those things right, we were very eager to visit the site itself!' Over the next twenty weeks, Esther will supervise an equal number of students as they explore multidisciplinary issues in connection with ‘placemaking’ for the Sluisbuurt. This involves experiential concepts of a temporary nature, aimed at making the public space attractive, in cooperation with neighbourhood residents. CGI students are enrolled in a wide range of study programmes at different Inholland locations. This group comes from the Leisure & Events Management, Nursing, Facility Management, Tourism Management (Dutch and English-taught) and Creative Business (Dutch and English) programmes.

‘Placemaking Picnic’
Over the course of the kick-off week, and under the supervision of artist Rob Voerman and industrial designer Davy Wouda, the students designed and built a podium and festival furniture. This offered a great way to get to know one another and to get started working together in teams straight away. Cris van Dijk, a Nursing student, had this to say about the experience: 'Just dive right in, that's what I learned during the week. We turned out to be better at working with our hands than we thought! When you combine your strengths, you can create something amazing from humble means.

The start signal for the CGI semester came Friday during the ‘Placemaking Picnic’ programme, in a presentation led by Karel Koch and Noor Mohamed, a Leisure & Events Management student.

Tour of the construction site
The programme also included a new construction quiz and a tour of the construction site. Merel de Boer and Myrthe Dortants from the Inholland team, who were tasked with preparations for the new construction in Amsterdam, ran a game to teach the students fun facts, such as that the silhouette of the Sluisbuurt was inspired by the Canadian city of Vancouver.

During the tour, Roelof Veen (environmental manager) and Roy Belmer (construction manager) from the City of Amsterdam explained that sand had been trucked in and spread over the site, creating a layer up to 5 metres deep in some places. This layer of sand ensures that, over time, the underlying soil will settle under the weight, becoming more compact and creating a stable underground that can support the infrastructure. To accommodate the building's foundation and other aspects, a portion of the deposited sand had to be excavated. This provided a sneak peek of the contour of the Inholland building – which is already clearly visible!

Visible in the community
Kim Hagenaar, coordinator of the SLUISlab, looks back at the event with satisfaction: 'The great thing is that here, through the SLUISlab, we're bringing together not only the new construction team of the Inholland Service Organisation, the CGI students and lecturers and colleagues from the Creative Business research group, but employees of the City of Amsterdam as well. By doing so, we're uniting placemaking, new construction and innovation with regard to learning and research. In Nautilus, we will also be working together with students, researchers, residents and partners from professional practice. This will make us quite literally visible in the community and make it easier for us to explore the possibilities for our students. Luckily, I'm seeing a great deal of flexibility and trust from all parties: we're diving right in!'

Students who took part in the Creative Growth Initiative (CGI) SLUIS Lab, the Creative Growth Experience (CGE) SLUIS Lab and the CGE ULT Lab minors delivered amazing, sustainable connective concepts, as shown by the various online final presentations. Many of the student teams focused on issues relating to the Sluis neighbourhood on Zeeburgereiland, to which Inholland University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam/Diemen will relocate in a few years’ time.

Social function
Good access is extremely important not just for Inholland students and colleagues, for instance, but also for neighbourhood residents and businesses planning to set up operations in the new district. It all starts with a ferry that will provide a temporary connection between the Eastern Harbour Docklands and Zeeburgereiland. The municipality of Amsterdam is already studying the possibilities for installing a temporary ferry line and the related infrastructure measures and products. But how great would it be if the ferry had a social function as well? Where neighbourhood residents can connect with each other? Two student teams mulled over this in the SLUIS Lab.

Team 1 consists of Nancy, Celine, Annemieke, Linda, Daniela, Bodil and Volkan, from the following degree programmes: AD Event Facilities Management, Tourism Management, Creative Business and Business IT & Management. They devised a concept consisting of two elements: a digiboard on the ferry, on which people can post a notice using their smartphone and a QR code, plus an interactive map on the floor of the ferry.

Notices
Annemieke explains what the concept is all about: 'All kinds of notices can be put up on a digiboard. A notice from a group of women, for instance, who are planning to set up a singing club and are still looking for members. Or a notice from a single mum who needs a babysitter for her little boy. People can post notices using their smartphone, but they can only be read on the digiboard because we don’t want everyone to be glued to their phones all the time.'

'We’re looking for a longer connection between people than a fleeting conversation on the ferry', Celine adds. 'That’s what we’re aiming to achieve with the notices on the digiboard. If people respond and make contact with each other, a sustainable connection will be created. We’re just giving them a little push.'

Drawing inspiration from museums, the group also came up with the idea of integrating an interactive map into the floor of the ferry. 'People can stand on a dot to find out more information about things they find interesting.' What does Zeeburgereiland have to offer? What are the best local restaurants? People will also see interesting facts about the neighbourhood or a piece of history.

Saving coffee points
Nicole, Kylie, Jennifer, Sven, Benthe, Manon and Roni in team 2 also came up with a digital platform in the form of an interactive screen, but the way in which it works is completely different. ‘Smart Together’ offers people the opportunity to play contemporary and old Dutch games with fellow passengers using free WiFi and their own smartphones in the middle of the ferry. People can also save coffee points, read the newsletter, look at hotspots in the neighbourhood or take part in neighbourhood opinion polls. Roni and Berthe provide more details: 'Even without a mobile phone, people can still play games in an analogue way. And locally run coffee stalls are located on both wharfs.' The team encourages passengers in a playful manner to deposit their empty coffee cups in the rubbish bin.

Peter Blummel, environmental manager at the municipality of Amsterdam responded enthusiastically: 'Your idea of making the ferry a place where people can drink coffee is really great. It will create a moment of relaxation and will indeed bring people into contact with each other. And you can do many different things using the platform. Things like saving coffee points: it’s the small things that will contribute to an enjoyable ferry experience.' He also finds the digiboard and floor map created by team 1 interesting ideas: 'Many people in such a new district are in the process of discovering who the other residents are and how they can help each other. I believe that a floor map is a good talking point on the ferry.'

Temporary settlement
Aside from the above, many more great experience concepts were developed, which will contribute to building a pleasant and liveable Zeeburgereiland. One such concept is SluisBox, an intergenerational jukebox that will play the collective music tastes of the islanders, which people can listen to in a park together. And Sluisdorp, a temporary, movable settlement offering music, food trucks, a playground, games, an interactive wall, a market, a stage, a pub, a book corner where workshops will also be held and a sports corner. Plus Waste = Food, a sustainability experience accessible to the public featuring ‘edutainment’ for and by residents of North Amsterdam, where people can learn from each other how to recycle food. The latter concept was developed by the Urban Leisure & Tourism Lab (ULT Lab).

Sharmilee Jayakkumaran, urban designer at the municipality of Amsterdam, is eager to implement a number of ideas. 'What I really appreciate is that we’ve learned a lot from each other during this process. This educational concept is so valuable.'

The FM degree programme contacted the service organisation a few months ago: 'We talked to Facilities Management to see whether we could carry out any experiments that would be beneficial to us later in the Sluis neighbourhood', explains Elze Reitsema, lecturer in Workplace & Real Estate Management (minor). 'I saw the Creative Growth Initiative programme as an example. A dedicated space was designed especially for project-based working under that programme but I just wanted to go the extra mile in creating a dedicated project space for our students.'

Design freedom
No more classes, but all eighty first-year students in one learning landscape, with lecturers in their midst to offer them support every day, where necessary. That was the idea. 'For such a large number of students, you would now need to break open an entire wing, ha ha!’ Within the Workplace & Real Estate Management minor, where third-year students focus on accommodation and the use of space, eight teams designed a learning space for their future fellow students. Each group came up with their own solution. Elze: 'The space on the first floor (A1.18 and A1.20) had already been designated and we also set out a number of framework conditions, but they were given complete design freedom within those constraints.'

Myrthe Dortants, whose work in the service organisation involves facilities management and accommodation, has been appointed project leader of the refurbishment of the two former classrooms, together with Merel de Boer. 'I’ve seen proposals containing really exceptional and creative ideas. We had a clear top 3 of best designs, but we ultimately selected the best elements from among all eight proposals, which actually closely matched the image that we ourselves had envisaged. We are currently fine-tuning the ideas, to determine, for example, especially during this coronavirus pandemic, which audiovisual media we can additionally use to create a good connection with students at home, so that we can work together in that way. We will give the green light shortly and start with the refurbishment and furnishings and fittings this summer.'

Shared experience
The focus is on first-year students, especially given that the 1.5-metre society will be maintained in the Netherlands for the time being: no more than 20-25 students are allowed to be in the room at the same time. Myrthe: 'Senior students should also be given the opportunity to share the experience and feel invited to work together. We have therefore incorporated the lobby and other nearby work spaces. This will make the entire floor an attractive space for studying. It is also rewarding to instantly recognise that this is the location of the FM degree programme.' Elze adds: 'Moreover, the learning space will not be locked. I expect that it will almost always be occupied. For the rest, you would need a crystal ball to predict developments in the coming months. I believe it is important to engage with first-year students. You won’t achieve this with a computer screen. I don’t believe in that. That’s why it’s positive that a relatively large amount of on-site time will be reserved for first-year students in Diemen.'

What design ideas will now actually be used for the learning space? 'We will start working with zones, for example, each of which will be assigned their own colour', Myrthe explains. 'The leisure space will be green and the focus space yellow. Group work will take place in the blue zone. We will use those colours on the furniture and walls. Furthermore, we have selected a diverse range of furniture: alternating between high and low, project tables, train seating and a gallery for presentations. A cork wall will be installed where students can go wild and hang up all kinds of things, so that they can be easily visualised. It should actually start feeling like their own space.'

New building in the Sluis neighbourhood
'I see a shift in the use of space', says Elze. 'To be able to focus, you work from home, whereas you meet up and work together in a building. A different division of space is increasingly being used in education buildings, with sloping floors and large galleries often integrating seating areas.' Myrthe chips in: 'In our new building in the Sluis neighbourhood, the entrance hall has the form of a gallery. It wraps around the floors. The gallery form can be used not only for events, but also for meeting up and working together. Many more learning spaces will be created in addition to theory rooms. That’s why it’s really beneficial that we’re now already working with this in Diemen.'

Elze: 'Our education will be designed around practical issues. The beauty of it is that we immediately dealt with this practical issue. The collaboration between the Inholland FM degree programme and the FM department really is a win-win situation. We have also been helping each other in other areas in the recent period. A group of students, for example, took it upon themselves to work on coronavirus measures in our building. That’s a welcome development, in my view.'

Students from the Leisure & Events Management, Tourism Management, Facility Management, Creative Business and Communication programmes tackled the issues together with a number of international exchange students. Whereas previous CGI groups had restricted themselves to designing a prototype for a future playground, this remit was broader: find a temporary purpose (placemaking) for specific locations in the Sluisbuurt for a 10-year period.

Vibrant and dynamic
The Council anticipates that it will be 10 to 15 years before the new Sluisbuurt district is fully developed. How can you make a new district of this type vibrant and dynamic in the meantime? How do you get residents to be active or encourage them to engage with each other? What can you do at cultural level? In a nutshell: how do you make a district that is still being built an attractive place to live in and work in?

After two terms of hard graft, the students came up with a wide range of solutions, ranging from a climbing wall that feels more like a skyscraper to a geodesic dome that is used for student projects, as well as events and productions for various target groups.

Freedom
CGI consists of an individual track in which students conduct their own research, and the creation of a prototype for the real-world partner. The latter is a group activity. Under CGI’s active learning approach, students are given the freedom to choose the direction that they wish to take. And, as crazy as it may sound, they often find this quite difficult. 'It was hard to start with because we didn’t really understand what was expected of us. Normally, we're given a briefing with clear guidelines. We asked our learning coaches "what exactly are we aiming to do here?" But that’s not how CGI works: it’s all about discovering things for yourself and adapting accordingly', says Communication student Robin de Jong.

Learning coach John Tielman, who teaches on the Business Innovation programme: 'This is a new form of learning that students sometimes find it hard to identify with. They were amazed what they learned from experimenting. Before they started, some of them thought it would all be plain sailing but there were a few heated discussions and a few tears were shed before real growth and results could be achieved.' His colleague Esther Bouw, who teaches on the Leisure & Events Management programme, adds this: 'We just wanted them to start somewhere, to make choices.' Every week the students gave a presentation to each other. 'That also meant that sometimes they had to admit that things weren’t working and they needed help from the rest of the group.'

Feedback
'Giving presentations to each other was great; you know exactly where you stand, whether you’re ahead of or behind the other teams, in terms of the research that you do in the initial phase, for example', says Tourism Management (NL) student Stefan Stuijvenberg. They also gave each other feedback. 'Being open with each other isn’t easy, not everyone has the courage to say what they think. Some people think: who am I to give my opinion, what do I really know about it? Luckily, I don’t have a problem with that myself. And if my peers are having problems, I try to ask the right questions to help them find a solution.'

'The learning journey is key', says Esther. 'For example, we had a group that initially developed a sports complex that would have been far too expensive. When they presented the initial concept, Amsterdam City Council said this: is it really the intention that this won’t be here for more than 10 years? This was hard for them to take, because it meant that they had to radically revise their original plan. It really is ‘kill your darlings’, and that’s not easy! Placemaking must be accessible and affordable.'

Classic cars
Robin’s team came up with about twenty concepts but, ultimately, they were left with only one. 'We thought to ourselves: what do we as students like doing? Answer: going to the cinema with friends. Our cinema is a cinema with a difference: it’s a drive-in, but with permanent cars, real classic cars, combined with a great classic movie. Really it was too expensive for placemaking but we decided to present it anyway. The Council was very positive about it. They’re now thinking of making this cinema a permanent feature in the Sluisbuurt.'