Towards sustainable work locations in post-suburbia

Marco Bontje

AESOP CONGRESS - GRENOBLE, FRANCE - JULY 1-4, 2004

Points of departure

• Deconcentration can be sustainable• Sustainable work locations can be created

both inside and outside of cities• Transformation ‘from suburbia to post-

suburbia‘ offers chances for sustainable regional development

From suburbia ... to post-suburbia

• Monocentric urban region• Monofunctional

(housing + pers. services)• Suburb-city commute

dominant• Radial connections• Quantitative growth

• Polycentric urban region• Multifunctional

(+ work, leisure, retail) • Increasing city-suburb &

suburb-suburb commuting• Tangential connections• Qualitative growth

(specialisation)

Dimensions of sustainability

• Land use• Building design &

construction• Transport• Energy• Pollution• Material flows• Social & cultural issues• Policy

Sustainable development?

Social justice

Economic growth

Environmental protection

The case studies

Business Park Beukenhorst

Strengths & weaknesses

• General strengths: integration in built & natural environment, efforts to reduce pollution & waste

• General weaknesses: discouraging unsustainable transport, policy co-ordination

• Diversity between cases: efficient space use, ecological construction, public & slow transport, park management, participation, energy saving, local employees / firms

Potentials & threats

• Potentials: improved public transport, added functions for ‘locals‘, increasing share of local employees, sustainable park management

• Threats: competition with unsustainable locations, over-dependency on few branches and/or foreign capital, only ‘clean & safe‘ park management, less political priority for sustainable development

Sustainable stakeholders?

• Architects / landscape designers: ‘artificial space scarcity‘, ‘intelligent working environments‘, ‘second ground level‘, ‚homely spaces‘

• Project managers: between scepticism and enthusiasm• Developers: conservative ‘zoning‘ preferences (with

exceptions); ‘does it sell‘?• Public institutions: ambivalent and often

contradictory actions, programmes and attitudes• Companies???

Conclusions

• More sustainable work locations in ‘post-suburban‘ environments are possible...

• ...but depend strongly on engagement of individual organisations, or even individuals...

• ...and are still rare exceptions in European metropolitan regions• To make such projects more widespread, ‘sense of urgency‘

should grow, but currently, trends point in opposite direction!