Hack the GREX

During the Stadsmakerscongres (The City Makers Congress), Vereniging Deltametropool (a consortium member of the NWA research programme Red&Blue), organised the Hack the GREX workshop in collaboration with AIR (Architecture Institute Rotterdam).

Researcher Lilian van Karnenbeek opened with a flood-risk scenario to explore how different actors could or should take responsibility, after which around 80 participants discussed the Dutch land exploitation model (GREX) from seven stakeholder perspectives, including developers, municipalities, and end users. The workshop showed that adding extra costs for climate adaptation into a GREX is difficult without matching financial benefits, which often leads to adding more program (e.g. extra housing) or cutting other expenses. Several tables therefore argued for better accounting of “avoided costs,” such as potential contributions from health insurers for greener environments that reduce long-term healthcare costs, possibly via higher-level regulation and a joint fund. Shared ideas like these made the workshop valuable for both experts and laypeople, increasing awareness and advancing collective thinking on how to adapt the GREX to integrate nature, water, and soil considerations.

Read the full report on the RED&BLUE website