Turning malls into greenhouses

Here's a great story. In the US, they are turning partly empty shopping malls into (sub)urban greenhouses. Now this what I call innovation. Growing organic veggies in malls and selling them on the spot. Read the original story on Cleveland's Galleria Mall here: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/02/galleria_has_gardens_now.html.

The people who started the Gardens Under Glass project in Cleveland are thinking of bringing in urban gardeners, starting an education centre and inviting sustainable producers.

Real estate experts predict the decline of the 'single use environment', like the shopping mall. This initiative is turning malls into multi use environments. Great idea

Studiereis Berlijn voor beleidsmakers

Berlijn: identiteit als wapen in de stedenstrijd

Overal in de wereld concurreren steden met elkaar om bewoners, bedrijven, bezoekers en bollebozen. Om als stad aantrekkelijk te zijn, is je identiteit belangrijker dan ooit. Iedere stad dient te kijken naar zijn eigen, onderscheidende identiteit waarmee het kan concurreren. Maar, waar kijk je dan naar in een stad? Hoe ontdek je wat een stad uniek maakt? En, tenslotte: hoe bepaal je vervolgens wat jouw stad uniek maakt?

Berlijn is drie dagen lang onze casus, inspiratiebron, laboratorium en werkplaats. Bij thuiskomst heb je scherpere inzichten en kun je betere keuzes maken in de positionering van je eigen stad of streek.

Deze studiereis wordt georganiseerd vanuit de Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen. Voor meer informatie, neem contact op met Roy van Dalm: 06 - 53 53 72 87 of mail: roy.van.dalm@inter.nl.net of roy.vandalm@han.nl

The Future of Cities

I'd like your ideas on this one. I have an idea that a picture of The Future of Cities may be slowly evolving from a cloud of books and ideas and I'd like to know your views. I've put together some books and articles I've been reading lately and cannot quite figure it out, yet.

1. Peoplequake by Fred Pearce: in this brandnew book Pearce describes an emptying Europe due to demographic changes. Sure, we'll be greying but there will also be few of us left in Europe due to a dramatic drop in fertility. A country like Italy will have only 8 mln. inhabitants at the end of the century. And Germany, Spain and Greece are going in the same direction. Pearce foresees a continent run by the elderly - tribal elders.

2. The Matthew Effect: successful cities will keep on growing, less succesful ones will be drained of more people and rural areas will be totally abandoned. 'To those who have will be given even more and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken from them.'

3. The Great Reset by Richard Florida (out April 27). The forming of the Megalopolis - great urban conurbations that will increase in size, talent and importance. If you're not close to a succesful city, you're out of the game. Green cities will have the future. Pearce also writes about this issue- about cities also being the resolution to the environmental problems they themselves have created. The large urban centres will also determine the economy, no longer countries.

4. J.H. Crawford - Carfree Cities and Carfree Design Manual. Attractive pictures of great liveable communities without cars. Interesting utopias.

If you consider all this, also remembering Robert Kaplan's words that the European future will be in city states, then what is the picture you get? What other sources do you have to contradict these ideas or add complementary ones?

Will we be heading for thriving European, green city states surrounded by urban wasteland and deserted countryside and run by tribal elders who have turned to slow living and preserving what we have instead of inventing new things?

The feminization of cities

I am totally amazed by Fred

Pearce's new book Peoplequake. It was published beginning of February and caught my eye because of an article in The Guardian on the population demise of former east German cities. Peoplequake describes the history of eugenetics, family planning and policies and demographic shifts.

Our planet may be crowded today, but by the end of the century many countries will have shrunk dramatically in population. Countries like Italy, Germany or Greece will be practically empty.

Pearce wonders what this demographic population crash will do for the future of European cities. An interesting insight into now is the feminization of cities. Women are taking the lead (also in numbers) in how the economy of cities is being run - from public office to service jobs.

When Richard Florida writes about the creative economy and the economic reset following this present crisis, he hardly takes into account demographics. Greying and aging nations: it all sounds familiar, until you see the naked facts of shrinking populations. I wonder how we could make a creative economy work with fewer and far older people?

Roys PowerPoint Gastcollege Minor Brandmanagement HAN

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Roys PowerPoint Gastcollege Minor Brandmanagement HAN

View more presentations from Roy van Dalm.

Identity as a weapon in the battle between cities

The city is the place where money, products and ideas come together. No wonder cities all around the world compete with eachother for the favours of inhabitants, business, visitors and talent. This calls for urban attraction strategies. And in order to be attractive as a city, your identity in this competition is more important than ever. The future of cities lies in their distinctive character, not in a karaoke strategy copying others.

By Roy van Dalm


Globalisation has created a level playing field for cities. Or so we thought. For, the playingfield may be levelled, but the players are certainly not equally distributed across the turf. Talent and capital have a tendency to concentrate and multiply in some places and be drawn and sucked away from others. In the global competition between cities we get to see what we call the Matthew Effect: to those who have shall be given and in abundance, but from those who do not have anything, even what they have shall be taken.

The effect is a diminishing number of fast growing and flourishing cities, and a growing number of cities on the losing side. On this effect in the US, urban specialist Carol Coletta, from the CEO’s for Cities network, told me that out of the 51 American megaregions only 16 are growing. The other 35 are actually shrinking. This concentration of capital, creativity and talent poses a definite threat to middle-sized cities. Do they have the power and critical mass to withstand the competition? Take the extreme example of the eastern German city of Hoyerswerda. This former socialist model city was the fastest growing city of the German Democratic Republic. Until the wall fell. Now it has shrunk from 70.000 inhabitants to barely 35.000. Everyone with any talent and ambition has long since left. Empty tenement buildings are now being inhabited by wolves, slinking in from across the Polish and Czech borders. And this is Germany, not some third world country.

Stay away from karaoke
In order to be successful in this fierce competition, cities need to have – what Simon Anholt calls – a competitive identity. ‘Dare to be different’ says Carol Coletta. In many cases however, city authorities do not go for distinctive character, but for karaoke. They choose to imitate for instance the concept of the creative city, believing that artists and designers are the cure to all urban ails. But the real point of the creative city is that creativity is used not as and end but as a means to address urban challenges.

If a city wants to succeed, it should follow the concept of what I call the Triple A City: Authentic, Activating, All-inclusive. It has to be authentic in the stories it tells about itself. It has to stimulate people to be actively participating. And it should include all people. In the end this means that every city eventually can only succeed by being itself.

Written for: Future Cities Forum Ostrava

Bottom up citymarketing

I advised the Dutch city of Venlo on their economic profile. They are struggling with their image as a city for drug tourists. And they're the city of Geert Wilders, the Dutch right-wing populist politician who leads the polls at present. But, there's a lot of creative energy in Venlo as well. One of Venlo's most creative entrepreneurs is Marcel Tabbers, active in the creative Q4 inner city neighborhood. Usually it's the authorities that start a positive promotion campaign to put their city in a favourable light. Usually this doesn't work. People see it - in the end - as propaganda. Marcel and his colleague Miel Theeuwen started a bottom up citymarketing campaign called 5x5x5. With 3 other people they had 5 to start with. Each one approached 5 other Venlo-citizens who in their turn approached 5 'Venlonaren' each. Everyone makes a webcam statement about something they personally like about Venlo. Tabbers and Theeuwen thought that it must be possible to find at least 100 people in Venlo who are positive about their city. The promo movies will be put on YouTube and on a special site www.5x5x5.nl. The 5x5x5 initiative has been nominated for the Dutch Citymarketing Innovation Award