Except Integrated Sustainability
Except Integrated sustainability.
Flourish in a changing world.
Multi-disciplinary consulting, innovation and development organization working on advanced sustainability projects around the globe.

Sustainable Schiebroek-Zuid

Project > Redevelopment of post-war social housing

We developed a sustainabile conversion and development plan for the post-war social housing area Schiebroek-Zuid in Rotterdam.  The project provides a flexible and exemplary roadmap for converting the neighborhood into a self-sufficient and sustainable area. It applies innovative energy solutions, urban farming, social and economic programs, secondary currencies, and adaptive redevelopment strategies.

This project was commissioned by housing corporation Vestia and agricultural research network InnovatieNetwerk.

Social housing conversion
As a first of its kind, the Sustainable Schiebroek-Zuid project provides a template approach to converting a commonly problematic housing typology into a beautiful, equitable and resilient sustainable community. The neighborhood uses proven, common technologies in smart ways, in combination with 'biological engines’ to provide the neighborhood with its own water, electricity, heat, waste processing and 70% of its own food production.

Closed loop metabolism
The plan combines socio-economic programs and proven technologies to create a closed-loop urban metabolism. All energy and water are locally provided and most wastes are handled on site. Local agriculture is the “biological engine” that drives many aspects of the plan, such as energy generation, nutrition, education, recreation, social programs, and local economic activities.

Integrated Sustainability
Except drew on its integrated sustainable development approach, Symbiosis in Design (SiD), to develop an extensive set of measures, or 'ingredients’, which can be mixed and matched over time to achieve the end vision. These ingredients were designed in cooperation with stakeholders and residents. SiD facilitates and assures the integration of the many elements of sustainability in a co-operative framework.

Social and Economical Development
The ingredients include many social programs for neighborhood target groups such as the elderly, children, teenagers, immigrants, and entrepreneurs. A marketplace and community center will serve as central hubs for the new neighborhood activities. Meanwhile, flexible ateliers provide spaces for startup companies that can be used as anything from craft workshops to offices, and kitchens to storefronts. A local currency has been suggested as a way of encouraging local trade and as an incentive for energy saving or waste reduction efforts.

Resource Self-Sufficiency
Using a combination of biogas-fueled power plants, solar installations, and heat capture from rooftop greenhouses, the area can supply all of its required electricity and heat.

Edible landscaping throughout the neighborhood can make use of previously empty lawns while meaningfully connecting residents to their natural surroundings. A key feature of the plan is that it renovates instead of demolishes most of the neighborhood’s existing buildings, reducing both the social disruption and environmental impact typically caused by neighborhood renewals that begin with demolition.

Contractor Vestia will start with implementing a number of ingredients from the plan. Except hopes that this project will serve as an example for the numerous social housing areas with similar typologies worldwide.

Further information
For the Schiebroek-Zuid project a vision book was developed as well as an ingredient book. The ingredient book, counting almost 300 pages of details, calculations, examples and solutions for all categories of the project, are available in PDF form in Dutch on this page.

Media & Downloads

Reference Projects

Growth-Planning Area Planning & Development

Next Generation Open Source City Planning - June 2009

Growth Planning introduces an entirely new approach to area planning and urban design. Rather than defining specific programmatic requirements, Growth Planning instead applies socio-economic impulses to the area within certain performance edge conditions. It revolutionzes the task of city design by requiring the urban fabric to organically respond to social and economic stimuli, and allows for increased value, quality, and development over time.

Born out of the necessity to start thinking differently about our built environment due to economic, social and environmental constraints, Except has worked on refining this new form of planning since 2005.

... read more >

Rome Apartment Building

New Architecture in the heart of old Rome

The Daadkracht project is the design of a four story mixed-use building in the heart of the old city of Rome, offering three spectacular apartments, shops, and a restaurant. Part of the design is a city park bordering the Tevere river, a church and various other historical buildings.

The project presented a unique opportunity to design the first new non-cultural edifice in Rome after Mussolini. To honour this event, an extensive study into the history of Rome, both its ancient past, turn of the century socio-cultural and political developments and modern developments were used as a driving force behind the design of this building.

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BKCity Slim Refurbishment

Sustainable Renovation of TUDelft's Architecture Faculty

BKCity is a magnificent listed monument of more than 30.000m2 functioning as the faculty of Architecture of the TU Delft. Except created a phased plan to make this historic educational building energy and carbon neutral within ten years.

The plan converts the building into a didactic tool that puts sustainability at the heart of education for generations of architects, introducing a unique in-building ecosystem that provides an inspiring environment, functional qualities and cost savings.

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San Francisco Transbay / Salesforce Park

World's largest ecological rooftop park

The San Francisco Transbay Center redevelopment project realizes the world’s largest rooftop park in the center of one of the world’s most exciting cities: Salesforce Park. The concept, developed by Except together with Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, restructures an existing transport hub into a beacon of beauty, biodiversity, and health.  The project started in 2007 and the park opened in 2019.

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Merredin Health Industries Spirulina Plant

Rural Regeneration Algae plant

The Merredin Spirulina plant, developed in the year 2000, is one of the first projects in which we applied systems thinking and our holistic, systemic approach to innovation, using ecology as a main component.

The result is a highly unusual but stunningly effective business case for a sustainable, ecological industry to revive a desert town in Australia. 

This project is a testament to the strength of holistic, systemic approaches. For this reason, we documented the project extensively on this page, indluing the conception process, business case and design of the plant. For more detail, feel free to contact us.

 

... read more >

Exemplary Neighborhoods

Learning from New Building Standards

Under the name of Excellent Areas ("Excellente Gebieden"), a number of Dutch home construction companies and municipalities are engaged in an experiment to use the building standards of 2015 and 2020, today. By the nature of these future building standards, there is much to learn for these actors before they can profitably apply them.

AgentschapNL is the facilitator of the Exemplary Neighborhoods project, and they asked us to evaluate the instruments they have set up for the learning trajectory.

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District heating vision Tilburg

Sustainable, fair, and affordable

This project researches a sustainable district heating system in the Dutch city of Tilburg, developed with our consortium partners.

The vision includes both ecological and social sustainability, and functions as the starting point for all parties involved to cooperate toward a sustainable and carbon neutral heat provision.

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Zevenkamp through our eyes

The transformation of Zevenkamp into the happiest neighborhood in Rotterdam

“Zevenkamp through our eyes: a story of three students and one neighborhood” is an urban transformation project by Except Academy, a learning platform for interns at Except. We developed an inspiration book which tells the story of our journey and experiences while investigating Zevenkamp, the second largest post-war neighborhood in the Netherlands.

The purpose of the book is to inspire and share our vision of Zevenkamp’s future. It has practical examples of opportunities for the neighborhood to become flourishing and resilient with the help of its residents and stakeholders.

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Trade mission Detroit

Launch of Detroit Urban Regen

In cooperation with the Dutch Foreign Office we  organized the trade mission to Detroit of May 2015 for over 25 organizations. The program established new permanent business partnerships of Dutch agri- and horticulture, and innovation companies with their American business, governmental and community development counterparts. Detroit, a  former powerhouse of the automotive industry, has suffered  from deindustrialization, a decline in population, an increase in crime, and general  decay. Yet, Detroit is a city full of resources and opportunities.

The event launched Detroit Urban Regen which aims to  revitalize  the city using smart agricultural solutions and creating a new biobased industry.  22 written pledges of commitment where secured, adding to the existing 15 international partners for Detroit Urban Regen.

... read more >

Sustainable development Catharijnesingel Utrecht

Full spectrum sustainability strategy for urban infrastructure

In collaboration with KWS-Infra and tender office GAIM, Except organized  an innovation session  for a sustainable approach to the demolition of a part of the Catharijnesingel in the center of Utrecht. The approach reponds to the sustainability goals set by the municipality of Utrecht.

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ReGen Villages Oosterwold

Masterplan for a self sustaining neighborhood

For ReGen Villages, we developed a globally unique masterplan for a self-sustaining housing neighborhood of 203 houses in the Netherlands. Designed on a 25 hectare site in an area called Oosterwold, just 20 minutes from Amsterdam, it exemplifies affordable, regenerative, and self sustaining living. 

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Roadmap to the BGI Manual

Bridging the knowledge gap in the field of Blue Green Infrastructures

Blue Green Infrastructures (BGI) increase the resilience of urban and rural landscapes, integrating their core functions with natural features and processes. Hurdles exist in the process of translating BGI-related knowledge and data from science to practice, and a tool that facilitates this transfer is still missing. We conducted a research in collaboration with a team of partner organizations (JNCC, IFLA Europe, BiodivERsA, and NRW), to pinpoint key preliminary knowledge to design such a tool, and collected our key findings in a report downloadable on this page.

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Contact

Except Integrated Sustainability

Tom Bosschaert
Director

Email  [javascript protected email address]
Phone   +31 10 7370215

Team

  • Ariana Bain

    Industrial and Urban Ecologist
  • Eva Gladek

    Industrial Ecologist
  • Gerard Vink

    Communication Strategist
  • Jacob Verhaart

    Head of Science; Industrial Ecologist
  • Michiel van der Vight

    Senior Associate
  • Stephanie Bartscht

    Communication
    Except Integrated Sustainability
  • Hidde van der Lijn

    Photography & Visualization
    Except Integrated Sustainability
  • Patrick Bellew

    Environmental engineering
    Atelier Ten
  • Han Dijk

    Spatial Strategy
    Posad
  • Stephanie Carlisle

    Environmental Design
    Except Integrated Sustainability
  • Bart Verhagen

    Client Representative
    Estrade / Vestia
  • Peter Oei

    Partner Representative
    InnovatieNetwerk / SiGN