Overview workshops

In this workshop, you will take on the role of a Sweco consultant and gain insight into Sweco‘s journey with clients, from initial contact to winning the project and project kick-off. We will explore this client journey in a real case-study, namely the Europapark in Groningen. You will work with your project group to persuade the client and consequently win the tender through a short pitch. You will try to articulate the client’s wishes and needs, anticipate any challenges, and propose associated solutions while crafting a high-quality proposal. Your team should prepare their pitch focusing on the following themes: standing out as a business partner in a competitive market, convincing the client of their commitment and expertise, creating a high-quality proposal, and assuring the client of a successful project kick-off.

Experience the challenges of water management

Are you interested in water management? Register for our interactive game. Imagine you have been chosen as a political representative in the board of the water authority (Waterschap). Together with your team you will decide on living safely with water. Would you strengthen dykes? Is it still safe to build houses in certain areas? How do you temporarily store surplus water? It is up to you and your team. In the meantime you have to deal with different stakeholders, parties and interests. Just as the water authority does in real life.

Our dijkgraaf Roeland van der Schaaf, the chair of our water authority, will introduce the game. Student spatial science Foeke de Wolf will guide you through the session. He will also tell you more about study and job opportunities Noorderzijlvest is offering. Join our water ambitions.

User stories in GIS

Embark on a journey into user stories with our workshop, designed to demystify the needs of users and transform them into impactful narratives for solutions provided by Geographic Information System (GIS).

User stories in GIS are narratives that express the user’s needs and expectations, emphasizing the practical application of GIS. They are a powerful tool in GIS development as they shift the focus from technical specifications to user practices, promoting clearer communication and efficient prioritization of features.

In this interactive session participants will dive into user stories, crafting narratives that shape GIS solutions. Step away from overwhelming project specs and tech talk, and focus on what truly matters in GIS: how it leads to real solutions. During the workshop we will break down into teams and guide you along each step of the user story design process. You will create a story map and layout your user stories with priorities and business values to then determine your solution in GIS.

Know your qualities

What makes you unique and how do you showcase this to future employers? In this interactive training session, you will discover what your qualities are and how you can communicate these as effectively as possible when you enter the job market.

Housing densification in Selwerd

In Selwerd, a neighborhood in Groningen, Procap is currently involved in a neighborhood renewal project. Selwerd is an urban district, but currently has a relatively large amount of public space and green areas. This leaves an opportunity to increase the number of houses. However, the challenge is to ensure that there is enough space remaining for a healthy green living environment. In our workshop we help you understand how we try to combine different claims for space, while densifying housing and trying to maintain or even improve a healthy and green environment at the same time.

In collaboration with your group, you will develop a strategy to densify housing in a specific part of the neighborhood. The challenge is to also preserve space for other functions such as parking, green areas, spaces to play and meet each other. Which group is going to convince the local municipality that their approach is the most effective for addressing these challenges?

Harmony in Concrete: Densification, Greening and Precast Innovations

You probably know, and the United Nations predicts that by 2050, there will be nearly 10 billion people on our planet, with almost 70% living in cities. As more people live in cities, the construction industry is facing the challenge of building 13,000 buildings a day from 2018 through 2050.

This is a huge task, and companies in the constantly growing market are facing challenges in building future cities that are greener, more digital, and inclusive.

Precast construction has five major advantages over conventional construction in solving this problems.
Firstly, it is more efficient with shorter lead times and higher precision. Secondly, it increases work safety on the construction site as components no longer have to be made directly on-site. Thirdly, it promotes sustainability by avoiding material waste due to efficient industrial prefabrication. Fourthly, it provides accuracy of cost and time planning. Finally, tight schedules can be met thanks to weather-independent production.

To achieve that, we need to include people with different backgrounds, knowledge, and vision.
Together with you, we’ll create ideal teams for the Design Thinking Exercise ”Greening in Concrete.”
You will engage in collaborative sessions, give your unique point of view, and explore ways to integrate green spaces into precast concrete houses. The second part of the exercise demonstrates the utilization of BIM in sustainable design. Building harmonious cities in the future requires mutual engagement of knowledge and experience.

Everything starts and ends with people.

Know your stakeholders

In the dynamic world of spatial planning, navigating through complex challenges is the norm. Successfully tackling these challenges involves collaboration with diverse stakeholders. Every development project involves individuals with unique interests and desires. How do you navigate through these diverse interests, and how do you foster genuine dialogue to move forward in the project? These are the intriguing questions you’ll explore in our engaging workshop on stakeholder management. You will step into the role of one stakeholder and try to negotiate your interests with other stakeholders at a location that needs to be redeveloped. Join us for an interactive workshop!

Managing your stakeholders’ interests

At Weusthuis and Partners we work on spatial developments in both urban and rural areas. In our work we often encounter situations in which different interests collide regarding a spatial development. For example, when development initiatives collide with preservation of the natural or cultural characteristics of an area. In such a case, different interests need to be balanced out. In this workshop, we want to find out about these different viewpoints and look at different perspectives of a spatial development. The key in handling these kinds of situations is in the process. Therefore, we will introduce one of our tools to get these different interests on the table and work towards a solution with different stakeholders. Also, we will of course introduce our consultancy firm and bits of our work. If you got curious, you are welcome to join our workshop!

Balancing transport infrastructure expansion and greening in densely-populated urban areas

Rijkswaterstaat is the executive agency of the Dutch ministry of Transport and Water Management and as such responsible for the operation and renewal of the main transport infrastructure networks in the Netherlands. This task of operating roads a.o. involves expanding highways to facilitate the still increasing mobility and prevent or solve traffic congestions and safety issues. However, most of these works take place in densely-populated urban areas where livability and climate adaptation require greening rather than concreting. In this, Rijkswaterstaat needs to balance between, on the one hand, intense engagement of stakeholders to gain support and come to integral solutions and, on the other hand, following a strict planning process as to realize projects within time and budget restrictions. But how to balance this national sectoral challenge with local societal challenges? The workshop elaborates on the case of the A9 highway expansion in the south of Amsterdam going right through the city of Amstelveen to discuss this balancing act in more depth.

URBAN DENSIFICATION MEETS GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE IN ‘DE SUIKERZIJDE’

De Suikerzijde is a new district area in the city of Groningen. Dura Vermeer is the urban developer and builder of the first parts of this new area.
With more than 5,000 homes, a train station and various urban facilities, it is a clear densification of Groningen, where the challenge also lies in strengthening the green infrastructure.
Inspire us about possible solutions in greening the city and the green infrastructure of De Suikerzijde. In this case study/workshop we asked about your creativity and view over greening the public areas, buildings and people’s behaviour in this new part of Groningen. How can we create a new green infrastructure for the new inhabitants (people and animals) from De Suikerzijde.

The Groningen municipality has the ambition to plant new trees in the city center of Groningen. The space however is limited and other ambitions, like housing, are competing. Moreover, not all space is owned by the municipality. This raises the following question: how can we strengthen biodiversity and housing in the city center? Our workshop focuses on nature-based placemaking with a twist.  Our participatory approach represents not only the voices of local people, but also the voices of local wildlife. How do you design the city center of Groningen from their perspective?

In our interactive workshop you will play the role of financial advisor for a municipality. In our
calculation model you will play with numbers, concerning different factors in spatial development to
achieve the highest possible financial feasibility. You will have to manage all the wishes and
requirements of three stakeholders: the future residents, the municipality itself and the developer of
the project. On the one hand, the municipality aims to build as many houses as possible, in order to
combat the housing shortage. On the other hand the residents want to live in a nice, green
environment without a lot of high-rise buildings. The developer however, wants to keep the price of
the site as low as possible, in his aim for a profit. You will experience how difficult it is to combine all
these interests, in your target for a feasible project.

The Land Consolidation simulation game

In order to optimally utilize the space in our densely populated country, puzzling with land and space
is a daily necessity. As Kadaster, we register and provide information about the location of real estate
in the Netherlands and the associated rights. This statutory task ensures legal certainty. From this
registration of the actual situation, Kadaster analyses the problems and opportunities of an area,
facilitates solution scenarios and guarantees legal certainty. We are convinced that the development
of an area can only be done in a strong form of cooperation, in which all interests are represented.
Dutch rural areas are facing enormous challenges. Competition may arise with the demand for space
from several interests. Land consolidation can be a helpful tool to solve the puzzle. In the workshop
participants will mark together to make the consideration, discuss the dilemmas and look for
combinations and solutions, to meet the demand for space. We will do so with an unique method:
simulation gaming.