12-10-2020 // 1st PROPOSAL

1st Proposal by Amber Klijn (small + big project) & Jesse Ulrich (big project)

We started an internship at the Municipality of Eindhoven in week 39. We will mainly focus on the Emmasingelkwadrant plan area. Our supervisors, also the clients, will be Monique Habraken and Jesper Remmen. They both work at the Municipality of Eindhoven. Monique works as a junior project manager and is involved in, among other things, placemaking. Jesper also works as a project manager.

The center of Eindhoven is not easily demarcated. Based on its history, Eindhoven has grown from a small city with a recognizable market function to an international hub where the central facilities of the region can be found. The Emmasingelkwadrant plan area is located in the center of Eindhoven. The Emmasingelkwadrant is bordered by the streets Emmasingel, Willemstraat, St. Antoniusstraat, Elisabethlaan, Vonderweg, and Mathildelaan. The planning area of ​​the Emmasingelkwadrant functions in the city as an isolated enclave with an inner area that does not seem to belong to the city; here the parked cars and rear sides of buildings dominate. The area offers a unique opportunity for development, due to the historical quality and the location in the city center.

Those developments will come. So will the aim be to create a new neighborhood with accessible streets, squares, green canals, and urban density buildings. The Gender, a stream that is currently disappearing into the sewer, will be opened up. The Victoria Park will be built around it. The emphasis will be more on the special mix of different functions present in this area: living, working, culture, leisure, and education.

The development vision has been created, but the full implementation will take a while. At the moment there is a lot of nuisance around the Lichtplein, the Lichtstraat, and the adjacent lawn. The Lichtplein has a chilly appearance and the Lichtstraat is poorly maintained. The Lichtstraat is not owned by the municipality, but by an external developer. It is currently ‘a thorn in the eyes’ for the people who live there. There is also a youth center on the Lichtstraat where, among other things, refugees are welcome during the day.

To give a more concrete picture of the area, a satellite view has been added underneath. The red line frames the Emmasingelkwadrant. The blue line frames roughly the area that will eventually become the Victoria Park and where nuisance prevails at the moment. The two buildings circled in purple will be demolished. The building on the right is adjacent to the Lichtplein and the building on the left is an extension of the Lichtstraat.

The current challenge is as follows: How can we convert the nuisance in the area around the Lichtplein into something positive in the long term? 

It is a temporary situation that must be bridged, between now and the construction of the Victoria Park and the construction of the Victoria Towers. At the moment there is an unpleasant atmosphere that literally makes room for nuisance. In addition, before the whole plan is fully realized, unpleasant situations will probably occur caused by the constructions. It will therefore also be a challenge to include the neighborhood by these constructions in advance.

The interesting thing about this area is that the municipality has very little in its possession; practically the entire area is in the hands of private parties. Nevertheless, the municipality does feel involved in the developments. For example, a development vision has been written, field research has been carried out to discover the ideal experience of the Victoria Park and the vitality of the area is currently being examined. A number of initiatives have already been started, stakeholders have been approached and there are already various existing communities/networks. We will mainly focus on the NOW. At the moment there are loose ends that need to be put together to continue and that will be quite a challenge. Because in order to convert the nuisance in the area around the Lichtplein into something positive in the long term, we first need to know who the stakeholders are. Who are the stakeholders? How important are they? How do they feel about the area? What are their wishes? First step: stakeholder mapping.

Personal goals Amber: 

Last year I did my Process Design project for the Municipality of Breda. "The Municipal world" really appeals to me, but the municipal language is sometimes difficult to understand. That is why I hope to broaden my knowledge of the municipality (even more) during this internship. One of my personal goals is to be able to work with all kinds of people from different age groups, with different perspectives, from different origins and different expertise. This applies both within and outside the Municipality of Eindhoven. At the same time, I am going to try to broaden my network, in order to build up some connections before I eventually enter the work field. I will also try to put the knowledge that I have gained over the past three years into practice. At the end of this process, I hope to know all the ins and outs of being a good Community Designer.

Personal goals Jesse:

Eindhoven is my hometown. I know the Emmasingelkwadrant as if it were my own backyard, I have good contacts with some of the local entrepreneurs and I spend a lot of my leisure time in the area. The project is appealing to me as improving the livability in this area is in my own interest. I am very curious to experience the effects of social innovation within a developing neighborhood not only as a social innovator involved within the project but moreover, as a local civilian in my own community. Furthermore, this project offers me the valuable chance to get in contact with people that work with community design in the region that I live in. Content-wise, I would like to find out how the TDK profile of the city (Technology, Design, Knowledge) is embedded in this local community and see if it might help us along the way to create the desired change. In a way, use the city's unique characteristics to improve the quality of life within this specific local community.

Timing:

Since Amber would like to use this project as a small and big project, she has to work 420 hours on this project. That means she should work on this project about 25 hours a week until the end of January. Jesse will be doing this project as a big project, which means he has to work on this project for 280 hours. Jesse will have to work about 17 hours a week until the end of January. Because it is an internship for us, Jesse is more likely to make too many hours than Amber too few. We have two fixed days a week that we work on the project. We also have an extra rotating day that we work on the project. So in total, we work three full days a week on the project. Our time schedule will consist of different tasks: LAB meetings, field research, desk research, stakeholder meetings, group meetings, and individual working hours. It will differ per week where our time goes. The first weeks will mainly be orientation weeks in which we will have many meetings with the people and organizations that can help us further. This is the estimated time that we will work on the project. However, there will be weeks where we will be working more hours on the project and there will be weeks that we will work fewer hours on the project.