The locals know best In the last decade of the 1900s, the new French banlieues were the example for architects and urban developers. Coaches full of professionals visited them, gaping at the architectural wonders and innovations in urban planning. That approach was based on high expectations about the ideal communities that would emerge. Those expectations have not been fulfilled, as the widespread rioting in the French suburbs demonstrated so painfully. These days, the French go abroad to see how large cities deal with social problems. They visited the Netherlands because – at least on the surface – there is no major unrest. The Dutch housing estate that interested the French was Pendrecht in Rotterdam. Just like the French banlieues, this area is a sort of urban-regeneration laboratory in the community.

Pendrecht was built in the 1950s as a garden village, with both high-rise and low-rise buildings, all in an expansive green setting. This was shortly after the Second World War in the Netherlands and a lot of new housing was needed. To prevent the residents being overwhelmed by the large scale of the project (the estate includes more than 6000 homes), smaller separate neighbourhoods were established with between 70 and 80 households, with their own shops and other facilities. The neighbourhoods were not standardised and they were all given a character of their own.

By the standards of the time, the homes – mostly flats – were very spacious. The first residents were often employed in the petrochemical industry and, after a while, they moved on to family housing outside the city. As large numbers of immigrants arrived and local facilities declined – the neighbourhood shops were unable to keep their heads above water – the social structure crumbled at the end of the 1900s. The neighbourhoods had gone, leaving a large, impersonal ocean of housing for which virtually nobody felt responsible any more. In fifty years, Pendrecht had been transformed from a luxurious housing estate into a deprived area.

A regeneration process was initiated a few years ago. The direct cause was the increasing number of vacant properties. An unusual approach was adopted for the regeneration process. The flagship of this approach is "Pendrecht University". The residents are the academics, the lecturers, professors and honorary doctors. The professionals and the politicians are the students.

They work together in the residents' association with official bodies, the business community and politicians in order to bring about improvements in their neighbourhood.

In addition, they look beyond the boundaries of the area where they live. The residents realise that the estate is no longer self-sufficient. Young people go out elsewhere; in many cases, they have to leave the area for secondary education, and many shops and jobs are also located outside the area.

This resulted in a new view of urban regeneration. Merging the physical and socio-economic approaches opened up the way to a refreshing new approach. And that raises lots of new questions for urban planners and policymakers. How do you get everyone involved? How can you keep the process manageable? How can you adopt an integrated approach without getting bogged down in all the different interests? How can you establish a plan in consultation with others but still prevent discussions leading to drab compromises? How can you lead the process to achieve the innovation that is so necessary? How can you set up and implement ambitious plans? How can you keep the long-term perspective in mind? How can you avoid raising so many expectations that they are no longer manageable? And how can you establish an effective process that will rapidly reach the implementation stage and avoid years of consultation?

The approach adopted in the Pendrecht area of Rotterdam is an excellent example of governance.
It makes full use of the ideas and initiatives of the local people so that Pendrecht is really being given back to the residents.

Once the French have got to grips with this approach, the idea of the Pendrecht University could appeal to them as a key to urban regeneration. And it could perhaps be a better way of getting the banlieues healthy again than paper legislation intended to create more jobs for young people.

Mark Reede, project manager ReUrbA²