Growing Green Bridges
Hackathon
On Thursday, 18 October 2018, the Growing Green Bridges hackathon was held.
The municipality of Almere and the province of Flevoland invited future makers to contribute ideas about innovative bridges for the Floriade terrain in Almere.
Creative location
The event was held at the location of theatre company Vis à Vis. At this creative location, between cars from the 1950s and bright Moroccan tiles, the day was opened by the chair Arthur Tolsma. After a clarification of the Floriade terrain and the bridges by Mark Huisman from the municipality of Almere, Boj van den Berg, one of the founders of ‘Urban Greeners’, talked about why we must innovate and how that can be organised.
From new materials to collaboration
Then the future makers were organised into groups on the basis of their expertise, like design, construction, materials, circularity and policy & financing, for the first innovation session facilitated by Noorderwind, BlueCity Lab and Zeewaardig. The objective of this session was to go from idea to insight.
An insight is a learning point within a theme from the discussion of the participants about innovation and how you can go about realising the innovation. To achieve this, the participants were asked to visualise breakthroughs and trends from their expertise that they had seen develop and to share them with their group.
This led to communal insights which were recorded on ‘insight cards’. For example, one of the insights derived during the hackathon for the theme time was that time is an important but also relative factor. Much becomes possible by working together more and in a different manner, and if the commission, design and realisation processes are approached with innovative procedures. Collaboration demands literally doing it “together”.
Visit to the Floriade terrain
As one participant remarked, “Innovation comes when we let go”. But while it is important to let go when innovating, it is important when designing to get hold of the idea, and be inspired by the environment for which you are developing a concept. That is why the participants visited the Floriade terrain: not only because it was interesting to visit the location, but also to experience on site what a bridge means for the environment.
Concepts visible in drawings
As one participant remarked, “Innovation comes when we let go”. But while it is important to let go when innovating, it is important when designing to get hold of the idea, and be inspired by the environment for which you are developing a concept. That is why the participants visited the Floriade terrain: not only because it was interesting to visit the location, but also to experience on site what a bridge means for the environment.
Professional draughtsmen talked with the participants to present the concepts of each group in 1 picture. This led to further refinement of the concepts that were visible in the drawings. The drawn concepts varied from a virtual bridge, a literally growing bridge, to a bridge that was not physically present at all. Both the municipality and the province expressed their enthusiasm with the results, and there was still time to reflect on innovation, the future and growth in the broadest sense.
Sharing is multiplying
The province of Flevoland and the municipality of Almere looked back on a successful hackathon to produce ideas for innovative bridges. The Floriade terrain has space for 2 innovative bridges. In the coming years in the Netherlands, many bridges will have to be replaced. The ideas from the hackathon could contribute to that project. It was also the launch of a knowledge network to bring experts together to promote ideas and visions. Many of the participants indicated that they would like to remain involved in the knowledge network. As one of the participants expressed it:
“I was very hesitant at first to share our ideas with others, but in the end we certainly got out as much as we put in. In this way, sharing is also multiplying.”
The process
Step 1: Kick off
During the meeting on 2 April 2019, the selected contractors and the external experts became acquainted for the first time and the teams were formed.
Step 2: Team
In this step the teams chose the themes they wanted to work on for the bridges. On 25 April 2019 the teams met up and selected from the insight cards. The process is described in Blog Sprint 1.
Step 3: Inspiration
At the meeting on 9 May 2019, the team members presented to each other what their inspiration was for the bridges. Ideas were elaborated, discussed and ultimately discarded until a few concepts remained. Read about it in Blog Sprint 2.
Step 4: Legal session
There is also room for innovation in the legal field. The idea is to exchange wishes and ideas early on in an open atmosphere and generate understanding for each other’s position. The outcome of this legal session was processed in a draft contract. Read more in Blog Sprint 3.
Step 5: Concepts
The teams elaborated the concepts into designs for the bridges.
Step 6: Expert session
In this step the teams can discuss their draft designs at an early stage with experts. This enables them to discover where modification or refining of the design is needed. The experts were concerned with permits, planning and the urban planner of the Floriade.
Step 7: Benefits of the Floriade
The teams examined how their design contributes to the surroundings. What can the bridge mean in terms of knowledge and education? And how can the bridge contribute to the themes of the Floriade: food, green environment, energy and health? Read more in Blog Sprint 4.
Step 8: Choice
The teams presented their concepts to the jury. On the basis of the awarding criteria, the jury determined that Team Reimert may build both bridges.
Step 9: Experiment
In this phase how all the ideas concerning the benefits of the Floriade could be realised was explored.
Step 10: Testing
In this phase a meeting was held with experts to examine how the solutions could be realised.
Step 11: Doing
In this phase the team prepared the definitive designs of the bridges.
Step 12: Construction
The construction of the 2 bridges begins. Construction of the Beverbrug is expected to start in June 2020. In September 2020 the construction of the bicycle and footbridge starts.
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