Tip: If your programme does not support this ReUrbA² news bulletin in HTML format, please click here.
ReUrbA Bulletin
24 May 2006

ReUrbA method
now available in three languages
The interactive course developed by ReUrbA to learn about methods for urban regeneration is now available in three languages: alongside the existing English version, there are now also versions in German and in Dutch.

>>> NEDERLANDS
>>> DEUTSCH
>>> ENGLISH

ReUrbA will round off
with a congress at the end of the year
 After four years of intensive collaboration, a congress will take place on Thursday 16 November as the final chapter in the story of the ReUrbA project. The congress will show what the exchanges and experience have brought us. During the congress, a manifesto will be presented demonstrating the urgent need for urban transformation. And the congress will provide very concrete demonstrations of how the ReUrbA method can help in that respect.
>>> MORE

'ReUrbA has not produced enough.
Projects like this simply frustrate urban regeneration.'
In the last year of ReUrbA, Luuk Boelens, a Dutch professor, arrives at a sombre conclusion: 'ReUrbA has not produced enough.' And Professor Boelens was himself a ReUrbA consultant. What's going on?
Boelens thinks that everything gets bogged down when the government gets involved. He has added a conclusion to his plea for a switch from 'government' to 'governance': 'keep the government out'.

>>> MORE

Learning from residents
Ten years ago, urban developers from the entire world went to Paris to view the miracle of the suburbs, the banlieues. A miracle that was dreamt up from behind a desk. The reality turned out to be different from the optimistic vision of social development in those areas. These days, French planners of the time go to the Netherlands to see what they can learn there from the category they had forgotten then: the residents.
>>> COLUMN MARK REEDE

Car drivers and train passengers
 Taking lifestyles into account is one of the cornerstones of the ReUrbA method for urban regeneration. But how does it work in practice? The Dutch provincial authority of South Holland is looking at the possibility of intensifying rail traffic in the urbanised West of the country and establishing an underground-style link between the cities. At the same time, more homes and offices will have to be built around the stations. So that public transport is close by.
However, the study has shown that people don't switch their 'mobility style' just like that. That is why there need to be buildings for people with the right mobility style.
>>> MORE

ErasmusPC wants your opinion
ErasmusPC, an international volunteer network, is investigating how culture influences the development of cities. On www.erasmuspc.com you can find inspiring projects and books on this subject.
Part of the website is a series of eight-question interviews with people from all over the world. You could be one of them.
>>> MORE



'Governance' requires
a different mind set
'Governance' is one of the elements of the 'ReUrbA method'. This part of the method, that was brought in by Luuk Boelens, has now been elaborated further. A new ReUrbA document explains in five steps what governance is, and especially what it is not. As the method requires, the text does not provide a ready-made recipe. Every problem requires its own strategy. So planners need inspiration, daring, leadership and the skills to communicate a vision enthusiastically.
>>> MORE

If you do not want to receive our news bulletin in future: remove me from your mailing list.