Designing an Irresistible Circular Society (DESIRE) aims to create an alternative way forward for the built environment supporting the EU mission of ‘100 climate-neutral and smart cities’. Against seemingly insurmountable challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource depletion we need to rethink our approach to finding solutions. Departing from architecture, design and art we will create an open learning environment with principles, methods and guidelines to support us in designing an irresistible circular society.
We present a DESIRE lighthouse demonstrator, built on insights and learnings from on-site demonstration activities taking place at sites in Denmark, Italy, Latvia, Slovenia, and The Netherlands, encompassing various themes and scales. Three themes define our ambitions. ‘Creating social and inclusive housing’ addresses the need for inclusive processes, ‘the power of we’, in the circular transformation of social housing. ‘Reconciling cities with nature’ is about designing liveable habitats and functional ecosystems from a multispecies perspective while rebalancing ‘land use’ to accommodate resource generation and biodiversity. ‘Transforming through symbiotic relationships’ focuses on how to optimize use of materials flow when rethinking urban landscapes in cities.
On-site demonstration activities, testing a set of specifically designed and co-created DESIRE principles to support transition at local level, unfolded in each of these sites. It has led to tangible transformation plans, programs and projects that bring evidence of the value of the New European Bauhaus. The tools and methods applied are gathered in a toolbox to support future users of the DESIRE principles in actions towards an irresistible circular society. A Digital Learning Hub,
https://www.irresistiblecircularsociety.eu/(öffnet in neuem Fenster) provides access to results and outcomes to scale the value of DESIRE. Universities with expertise within design, creativity and architecture have assessed, analysed and communicated the learnings and outcomes.
By this, we set the foundation for a school of thought and practice, and establish a scaling framework for widespread learning across the EU through a digital infrastructure and the Irresistible Cities Lab, a community of European cities, NGOs, academia etc.
