It's summer, and as we welcome the days of warmth and the arrival of stinging insects, we can also reflect on the first two great quarters Except has had in Rotterdam this year. Despite the economic downturn, we've experienced many positive developments since our last newsletter went out at the beginning of the year, and we believe the next two quarters will be even better. 

We're looking at establishing new offices in the HAKA building in Rotterdam, in conjunction with the city planning department, 2012 Architects, Vestia housing cooperation and others, using our concept of a new way of working together. We hope to co-locate and share resources with a range of individuals and small companies from designers to planners, scientists, artists, psychologists, and more. In this new type of professional work collective we aim to achieve both independence for the members of the initiative as well as increase our ability to address large problems by drawing on the various skills of the members of the collective.

We've completed the visionary CO2040 project together with one of our partners, POSAD. This project addresses a question posed to us by the Ministry of Housing, Spatial

In the last month, two public lectures were given by Tom on Except's sustainable design vision. The first was at the Zwijger in Amsterdam during "Sustainable Design Day," organized by O2, BNO, and Tuttobene. The other lecture took place just yesterday at the Smart and Sustainable Built Environment conference (SASBE 09). The lectures also included a sneak preview of our new design methodology, Symbiosis in Design, which we will continue to develop this year.

Earlier this year we completed a sustainability vision for a region in the Netherlands as part of the Maasterras urban redevelopment project. The project provided the City Councils of the Drechtsteden, project developers, and planners a tool they can use to develop an integrated sustainable vision of the region as time goes on.  

A preview of the booklet summarizing this project can also be downloadedon the project page, with the full digital document available via email request.

We also recently worked with RAU architects on a radical sustainable community development in Amsterdam, using a planned-growth model of development rather than relying on traditional investment structures. This plan drew on new insights and lessons learned from current economic downfall and focused on performance-based measures to stimulate autarktic development.  This exciting project was completed in close cooperation with RAU, housing cooperations: Stadgenoot, de Kei, Bouwfonds, and Parteon, as well as construction firm Ballast-Nedam.

Meanwhile, we keep working on the design various private homes, communication and visualization projects, and continue to do research. We've also established a new partnership with the TU Delft and became a member of KEI, a knowledge centre for urban regeneration in the Netherlands.

As always, if you'd like to know more about any of our work, you can look through our projects on this site or give us a shout.