ANNUAL CONGRESS 2025

ASSETs for circular futures: boosting the transition to circular construction in the Eurodelta

Not scheduled

20m

Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul

Oral SS 10 | Shaping Regional Futures Toward Sustainable Transitions: Community Involvment In Visioning and Implementation

Speaker

Fabio Bayro Kaiser (RWTH Aachen University)

Description

The ASSET project—A Spatial Strategy for Eurodelta, boosting the Transition to circular construction—is a transformative initiative to establish the Eurodelta as a blueprint for a circular built environment (CBE). ASSET is a collaborative project between the cities of Amsterdam, The Hague, Brussels, Krefeld, and Duisburg; RWTH Aachen and TU Delt universities; and the Deltametropolis Association and Metrex. The Eurodelta encompasses diverse urban regions such as the Randstad, Brussels, and Rhine-Ruhr, and it faces challenges of climate adaptation, biodiversity loss, and socio-economic inequalities, among others. ASSET uses shared infrastructure and economic networks to develop spatial strategies for a CBE. Early efforts, including material flow mapping and cross-regional collaboration, have identified circular construction hubs and reuse practices, and showcased scalable solutions that combine local innovation with regional coordination.

ASSET emphasises the importance of bridging visioning and implementation by integrating bottom-up innovation and top-down coordination. Through participatory practices, multi-stakeholder workshops engage municipalities, private companies, practitioners and communities in co-creating actionable design principles that reflect local needs and aspirations. These processes ensure alignment with long-term regional strategies, while maintaining a focus on place-based policy-making to address local specificities. Collaborative student-led design initiatives further enrich the process, combining grassroots creativity with structured governance to foster shared narratives that prioritise ecological balance and social equity.

By integrating local action with overarching coordination, ASSET illustrates a paradigm shift towards a place-based circular economy. It redefines land use, logistics, and governance to achieve regenerative material flows and adaptive urban systems. Thereby, positioning the Eurodelta as a global model for sustainable transformation, and demonstrating how collaboration at all levels can shape an equitable, resilient urban future.