2020 Masterclass High Density Energy Landscapes in Amsterdam
In September 2020, the second edition of the Masterclass High Density Energy Landscapes took place in Amsterdam. Civil servants from different teams in the municipality of Amsterdam (Space and Sustainability Department) and the municipality of Diemen worked for one week on the complex landscape infrastructure of the Diemerscheg – the green landscape corridor in the East of Amsterdam. This year’s assignment called for the application of design thinking in the context of the renewable energy strategy that is currently prepared for the larger region North Holland South.
The 2020 edition of the Masterclass was co-designed with the municipality of Amsterdam and involved several stakeholders such as the experts working on Regional Energy Strategy (RES). The Masterclass is an annual training program, where methodological and substantive questions for urban energy transition are studied together with public servants that face the spatial dimension of energy transition in their daily work. Masterclass participants are trained by means of lectures, invited experts presentation, field trips, open discussion and context-bounded exercises. The final aim is to turn participants into ‘ambassadors’ for these topics in their teams, to start sharing knowledge and create spillover effects among colleagues within and beyond their own teams.
Background: In 2018, the municipality of Amsterdam and the Academy of Architecture (research group High Density Energy Landscapes) joined forces to work on sustainable energy transition in and near the city of Amsterdam. This multi-year partnership firstly aims at strengthening daily practices of the municipality (Masterclasses), enhancing the knowledge on energy transition in the Amsterdam metropolitan region (research) and to give students the opportunity to work on real-world assignments in design studios and thesis projects (Academy teaching). Contact person: Paolo Picchi (Amsterdam Academy of Architecture)
Figures: Photographs from the excursion (above), of one drawing (by S.Brugmans, W.Poppinga, S.Langendijk and R.Oorsprong, 2020) and during one of the seminars (bottom).
