New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Project category

Identify the award category for which this project is being submitted
Reconnecting with nature

Email user
h.m.korthof@wolmail.nl

Basic information
Project title
Biodiversity Back in our neighbourhood

Full Project Title
Rewilding our urban neigborhood together with the neighbors, the school, the municipality

Please provide a short, catchy description of your project to be used in communication towards the public.
We improve the biodiversity in and with our own multicultural neighborhood in the Dutch city of Leiden. Together we created façade gardens, gardens in the unpaved soil under trees, an ecological connection on a canal quay, bee and butterfly paradises, an educational tiny forest with and for the school, biodiverse playgrounds, swift nesting possibilities, monthly meetings, clean-ups and events. By doing this, we became a warm community in our now colourful and more climate adaptive neighborhood.

What was the geographical scope of your project?
Local

Where was your project implemented?
Member State(s) and Western Balkans
Netherlands

If relevant, insert names of region(s)/municipality(ies) involved
City of Leiden, Netherlands

Does your project address mainly urban or rural issues?
Mainly urban

Does your project refer to a physical transformation of the built environment or other types of transformations (hard or soft investments)?
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)

Has your project benefited from EU programmes and/or funds?
No

Has your project won an EU prize with a monetary value awarded?
No

Is your project fully completed
Yes

Please indicate a date (mm/yy)
2022-12-31

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?
As a representative of an organisation
Please provide the contact details for the project promoter (the individual or representative of the organisation authorised to represent the project)
- Name of the organisation(s): Groengroep Groenoord-Zuid
  Type of organisation: Citizens' initiative
  First name of representative: Hannie
  Last name of representative: Korthof
  Gender: Female
  Nationality: Netherlands
  Function: Member of the Citizens' initiative
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Haarlemmerweg 44E
  Town: Leiden
  Postal code: 2316 AC
  Country: Netherlands
  Direct Tel: +31621837254
  E-mail: h.m.korthof@wolmail.nl
  Website: https://Leiden-noord.nl
Social Media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
- URL: https://www.facebook.com/people/Groengroep-Groenoord-Zuid/100066645187840/
  Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): -
- URL: https://www.facebook.com/people/Groengroep-Groenoord-Zuid/100066645187840/
  Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): -
In case my project is selected as a finalist of the NEB Prizes 2023, I agree to share the name (individual and/or organisation’s), email address, website and social media accounts indicated above with other NEB Prizes finalists. I also agree to publish the name (individual and/or organisation’s), website and social media accounts indicated above next to the public description of my project in the channels of the European Commission.
Yes

How did you hear about the New European Bauhaus Prizes?
Social Media

Description of the project
Please provide a summary of your project.
Since 2010 we work in our neighbourhood Groenoord-Zuid in the Dutch City of Leiden on the rewilding of our neighbourhood and strengthening te urban ecosystem. In the same time we strengthen the connection between nature and ourselves and our neighbours, and do we strengthen the connection between each other and the different cultures in the neighbourhood. We do that in many different ways:
- gardening together in the green spots of the neighbourhood
- inspire people to make green façades or to adopt the open soil in the pavement under trees to make them flowering
- we organise birds, hedgehog or bats projects
- we inspire neighbours to join our actions, by communication, by education, by community-events
- we organise monthly green maintenance mornings in the neighbourhood
- we organise each year children activities (make peanut strings and fat balls for bird f.i.)
- we work together with the school, with educational programmes and excursions, but also by the realisation of a tiny forest, where the kids can wonder around, and learn in practice about nature.
- we realised:
- 45 façade gardens,
- 45 gardens under trees,
- 81 water tanks for water retention and watering the garden
- 35 bee hotels
- a swift nesting tower, 50 swift/bats nest boxes, and in cooperation with the housing association 30 swift nesting bricks,
- two bee and butterfly paradises,
- a bee connection zone
- an interconnecting ecological zone by the conversion of a brick quay along a canal into a flowering zone with a meandering walking path
- two biodiverse playing grounds
- two biodiverse parking areas
- we won a Leiden-biodiversity award (groenlintje, https://leiden.groenlinks.nl/nieuws/uitreiking-groene-lintjes-11)
- we won a national biodiversity award (Steenbreektrofee, https://steenbreek.nl/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/SB-juryrapport-Groenoord-Zuid-Leiden-1.pdf)
- we made our neighbourhood more climate adaptive

Please indicate the main themes of your project with 5 key words.
Biodiversity restoration

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Community building

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Education

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Colourful neighbourhood

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Climate adaptation

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of sustainability and how these have been met. Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context.
Our goal was to improve the biodiversity, to interconnect our green areas with other green structures of the city, to make the neighbourhood more colourful, and to connect people: to each other and to nature. I think we met all those goals. In the question about the summary of the project I answered already on the biodiversity goals. About the question if we are an example for others: We are well known in the city. The municipal council knows and values us. We are often in the news and last year we won the yearly price of greenest organisation in the city, as well as another national price in the Netherlands. We think we inspired a lot of other citizens, and we think we are an example for them.

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience for people (through design, positive emotions and cultural benefits) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context.
Our goal was also to make our neighborhood tidier and safer. And over the years, there have been more and more people involved of different nationalities (Dutch, German, Spanish, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Canadian, etc.). Also, because there has been a new construction project for a higher segment, there are now people of really different layers of society involved in our project, who are working together in perfect harmony.

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of inclusion (ranging from accessibility and affordability for all to inclusive governing systems, design for all principles or new societal models) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context.
Our project works well in our multicultural district. In our group we have many different nationalities and people form very different layers of society. All working together on one goal. Also on the events we organise, we meet people of very different plumage. People who like to meet on this subject, and who would probably not meet without this common interest.

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the project and civil society have been involved in the project and what has been the impact of this involvement on the project
There are a lot of people involved in different ways, and also on different levels. Everybody does what he can or wants, it is a very fluent way of working together. That makes it possible for many people to feel comfortable ant to join the movement.

Please explain how different stakeholders at various levels (local, regional, national, European) were engaged in the design and implementation of the project. Please highlight what the added value of their engagement was.
We are very local. Our cooperation doesn't reach further than the municipality and some regional and national funds. Their added value, however, was very necessary and valuable. They provided money for our actions.

Please explain which disciplines and/ or knowledge fields were reflected in the design and implementation of your project. Please explain how representatives of these different fields interacted with each other, and what the added value of this process was.
The disciplines and knowledge
fields we needed and covered are:
- ecological knowledge
- organisational skills
- communicational skills
- project managing skills
- fundraising skills
- representation
- performances in films and interviews

Please give information on the results, outcomes and impacts achieved by your project in relation to the category you apply for. This includes also benefits from the project for direct and indirect beneficiaries
We apply for category A
So:
- sustainability: we achieved important goals on biodiversity and climate adaption, bij enlarging the green ereas in our neighbourhood, taking care of the connection with green areas in the surroundings, and by restoration of biodiversity: amelioration of the quality of biodiversity.
- inclusion: we attract many types of people and nationalities by the subject (green in our own environment) we are working on. They all feel connected to this subject, but also to each other. The subject connects people to each other, and also connects the more to nature. And they spread the message to their own surroundings.
- our project makes the city more beautiful, people feel safer in this more beautiful surroundings, and wil take more care fore their own environment. They will meet their neighbours more often, because people like being on the street and will easily meet. People will know each other better, and the whole neighbourhood is flourishing.

Please provide documents showing the results, outcomes and impacts of your project
PDF
PDF
- pdf-1-29736.pdf
Please highlight the innovative character of the project, when compared to mainstream actions in the field of the project
This project is really bottom-up and long-lasting

Please describe the methodology or approach used in your project.
organic, bottom-up, many biologists and other experts, f.i. on project managing and finance, are involved for local knowledge; really embedded in the neighbourhood.

Please describe which elements of your project could be replicated or transferred to other places, groups of beneficiaries and context. This may involve for example aspects of the methodology, technology, processes, products, learnings etc.
We think our project can easily be replicated in other area's. It is a low profile but very steady project. Communitybound, a combination of biodiversity goals and social goals, wilt a lot of spirit and pleasure.

Please explain what kind of global challenges the project addresses by providing local solutions
Local solutions for improving biodiversity in combination with a bottom-up neighbourhood bound approach

In the presentation we uploaded you will find a lot of pictures. I think that will be illustrative enough. Thank you!
Please attach at least 6 high resolution images (or other types of visual representations, if images are not possible) to your application.
If you would like to upload additional documentation, please upload or write below
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By submitting your application you confirm that you are the copyright owner of the images provided and that they can be used by the European Commission for the purposes of promoting the New European Bauhaus on all platforms (websites, print, social media and other).
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that you are not in in one or more of the exclusion situations foreseen under Article 136 of the Financial Regulation.
Yes

By submitting this application, I declare that I am not related to the entities subject to EU restricted measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and subject to Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)1, and entities covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05), which are not eligible to participate in any capacity.
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that you assume sole liability in the event of a claim relating to the activities carried out in the framework of the contest, that the proposed project has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Prizes in any other category or strand and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.
Yes

By submitting your application, you guarantee that you are the author or have the rights to proceed with the application and to authorise the use of the project and that you have obtained any necessary consents, licenses or assignments from third parties and included copyright notices when necessary.
Yes

By submitting your application, you understand that all the applications that meet the eligibility requirements will be shared for the purposes of the selection processes, and notably published on the secured platform prizes.new-european-bauhaus.eu and for the purposes of the promotion of these on the New European Bauhaus website and/or other European Commission communication channels. In this sense, the applications would be widely available. Applicants should ensure that they present their projects, in such a way that they could be shared without giving rise to intellectual property related concerns. If your submission is selected as one of the finalists, it will additionally be shared for the purpose of the public vote that will take place. The European Union is granted a licence to use and share your application with the general public and the official external experts for the purposes of the selection process, including the voting. The European Union has the right to use the images and visual materials and the description provided in the application for communication purposes related to the contest and beyond. Rights granted comprise the right to store, reproduce, display, publish and communicate or distribute copies in electronic or digital format, including, but not only, through the internet. Unless you have disclosed your name, the European Commission has no obligation to share your name when using or disseminating your contribution to the public. The European Union cannot be held responsible in case any submitted project, is found to infringe third party’s rights. The European Union shall be neither responsible for the use that third parties may do of the applications or related content.
Yes

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you read and understand that the ‘Guide to Applicants’ of the NEB Prizes 2023, available online in the website of the NEB Prizes 2023, is an integral part of this application form and that it must therefore be observed when completing and submitting your application.
Yes