Green Light District – Making the oldest area of Amsterdam more sustainable

In The News 20 Jan 2020

Dutch version

The Challenge

The energy transition poses various challenges. One of these is making canal-side properties in the historic city centre of Amsterdam, called the ‘Red Light District’, more sustainable. It is the oldest and one of the most visited places in Amsterdam.

How can the 18th century canal houses be adapted to meet today’s requirements and wishes for the energy transition?

The solution

The Green Light District project started with the purchase of a building by the social real estate company NV Zeedijk and the desire to bring the people in the district together to become more sustainable. Stichting De Groene Grachten, advisor and export supervisor in making historic buildings more sustainable, was approached. Together, the plan arose to make the entire area more sustainable, in addition to the purchased building.

The consortium, consisting of Gemeente Amsterdam, De Gezonde Stad, Rooftop Revolution, TU Delft, EIT Climate-KIC, NV Zeedijk and De Groene Grachten, will work bottom-up in the Green Light District in the coming years.

The building of NV Zeedijk will be a temporary headquarters where pan owners and residents will receive information about how they can make their building or home more sustainable. Meet-ups will be held to provide information on how the buildings can be made more sustainable.
The goal is to jointly transform this densely populated and most visited square kilometer of Europe into a future-proof, sustainable and iconic part of Amsterdam.

The impact

The neighbourhood becomes more liveable through better social contact; social cohesion is created. In addition, a better business climate is created, which stimulates the local economy.

The technical challenges make the project more complex, but Green Light District shows that it can be done: “If sustainability is possible with a monument from 1753, then it can be done anywhere.” 
The project has grown into a platform for scaling up initiatives by residents, entrepreneurs and institutions in the field of energy transition and greening of the old city centre.

The role of EIT Climate-KIC

EIT Climate-KIC has experience with system innovation projects to make cities more sustainable and can put its expertise to good use in setting up a project of this size. Partly through the network EIT ClimateiKIC has built up in recent years. Because many partners are involved, it is important that financial support is properly streamlined.

For more information visit the website of Green Light District (Dutch).

In support with Klaske Postma, Regeneration Design

 
Location

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