The XXth century left Europe with the legacy of modernist architecture and planning, widely known for its functional approach to building and space design. The modernist movement, associated with Le Corbusier in France and the Bauhaus style in Germany, borrowed ideas from industrial production to revolutionise housing construction. Most social housing estates built in the 60-70S in western Europe followed the lead to meet the great affordable housing demand that followed WWII. This often translated into massive concrete tower blocks surrounded by an abundance of open green space, which generated inward-looking, isolated housing estates with physical boundaries that segregated lower-income groups from the city. Eventually, modernist estates became a focal point of social exclusion and criminality.

As part of the World Garden City Conference, celebrating their 100 year anniversary since it was first organised in 1924 in Amsterdam, Utrecht municipality and Housing Europe are co-organising a guided excursion to the modernist social housing estate of Overvecht Noord district. The tour will be followed by a peer-to-peer exchange with social housing associations on how to take over the legacy of post-war housing estates together with nature and the community.

The Overvecht-Noord, a low-income district built in the 1960-1970s to house the growing urban population, has the ambition to become fossil-free by 2030, which is supported by the National Government. Two social housing corporations Woonin and Bo-Ex together with their partners and other housing associations are faced with the challenge of renovating approximately 5,000 social housing units in the coming years, while at the same time increasing the public space, quality of life, safety, mobility and culture in the area. It is a major challenge to renovate these apartment buildings to Nearly Zero or Positive Energy Buildings while also engaging communities and respecting biodiversity.

We invite all social housing associations based in the Netherlands (or outside) to learn more about the innovative social renovation programme used in Overvecht Noord for neighbourhood regeneration and community building. The Peer2Peer session will be an opportunity for fellow social housing providers to share challenges and good practices in revitalising the legacy of post- war/modernist social housing with communities and nature.

The excursion is organised as part of the EU-funded project ARV. The workshop will run in English and Dutch.

Find the draft agenda here in English and Dutch.