Bouncing Forward

Bouncing Forward: Redefining a disaster-struck city: The case of Enschede

Meijer, Rik (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment)

van Dooren, Elise (graduation committee)
van der Meel, Hubert (mentor)
Staničić, Aleksandar (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences

A Cultural Breeding Ground

2019-07-02

The post-disaster redevelopment of a city is a complex process that requires perspectives from urban, social, economic and even ecological sciences. Resilience defines as the ability to bounce back, but the everchanging complexity of a city requires more than a simple rebuilding to pre-disaster conditions. My research identifies different notions on urban resilience but adopts the principle of “bouncing-forward”, where redevelopment aims far beyond the mere physical recovery and restoration. The “bouncing forward” notion implies the system’s ability to apply a transformative, “learning-curve” attitude for long-term development. By analyzing the historical moments of destruction and reconstruction of Enschede, I define a “learning curve” that teaches us that each redevelopment offers an opportunity for a paradigm shift based on the societal requirements of time. Also, historically, each reconstruction used the specificity of place to determine the direction for urban redefinition. I use these perspectives and lessons on urban resilience to re-evaluate the Roombeek redevelopment. After the fireworks-factory disaster, a participatory mode of governance – based on consensus decision-making – was applied to restore the disrupted relationship between the public and the local government. By putting architects into a power vacuum, the Roombeek redevelopment displayed pragmatism over a “transformative” vision for urban redefinition. A 200-car parking-facility close to the disaster-site indicates favoring the wishes of a small collective over the requirements of the city. By extrapolating from the learning curve, I formulated a future urban redefinition. I argue that the city should try to establish symbiosis between the inner-city creative forces and the edge-city’s innovative forces to establish itself as the cultural-technological city. By building a “sustainable, cultural breeding ground” on the location as mentioned earlier, the city could take the first step in shifting towards urban redefinition.

Urban Redefinition
Urban Resilience
Post-Disaster Redevelopment
Interactive Governance
Enschede
Roombeek

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Student theses

master thesis

© 2019 Rik Meijer