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Designing the irresistible circular society
Making nature and vulnerable groups stakeholders
We work to make circular processes visible and accessible for all local actors
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Desire experiments with creating sustainable, attractive, and inclusive urban spaces which respect the limited resources of the planet.
The aim of Desire is to start an architectural movement based on cohesion and equality.
Desire will create a movement that sets new standards and develops methods for transforming urban spaces.

News

At a meadow beside a construction site in Herlev, DK, artist Davide Ronco creates a temporary artwork from bricks moulded with local earth, challenging the permanence of human architecture. As the structure crumbles over time, it symbolizes nature's reclamation of land. A fleeting art project that questions our relationship with the Earth.
Last week, the Desire project and BLOXHUB in Copenhagen hosted the third New European Bauhaus Cluster Workshop, gathering the six lighthouse projects, the coordination and support project CrAFt, and CINEA, the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency. All projects share a common goal: the implementation of the EU Green Deal, emphasizing beauty, sustainability, and collaboration.
Through the Desire project, the city of Kalundborg, DK has established a citizen group that, together with architecture students and a design firm, will experiment with small, simple things in public spaces.

Meet us at these events

Hørkær 8, Herlev, Denmark 23.11.2023
The Garden Caretaker (right now represented by the Artist Davide Ronco) will present his work in the greenhouse and the surrounding area. If you are in Herlev, DK, or close to it, drop by to say hello to our partner NXT and Davide: Hørkær 8, Herlev 23 Nov 2023,14-16.00.
Event

Demonstration sites

Desire’s three themes are powered with knowledge from eight territorial sites, three in Denmark, two in Italy, and one in each of the other countries: The Netherlands, Slovenia, and Latvia.

Creating social and inclusive housing where we address the need for inclusive processes in the circular transformation of social housing.

Transforming through symbiotic relationships where we will focus on optimising materials flow when rethinking urban landscapes in cities.

Reconciling cities with nature where we will design livable habitats and functional ecosystems from a multispecies perspective while rebalancing ‘land use’ to accommodate resource generation and biodiversity.

  • All
  • Social housing
  • Symbiotic relationships
  • Reconciling cities

Creating social and inclusive housing

Addresses the need for inclusive processes in circular transformation of social housing.

(01)
Wildemanbuurt is a post-war social housing area of poor quality, a vulnerable neighbourhood (app. 5000 inhabitants) in the city. The aim is to create new pathways, prototypes and processes towards new forms of meaning, imagination, shareability and realisation of an inclusive and sustainable (circular) living environment, by exploring how local qualities (high cultural diversity, high share of young and elderly people, heritage, green space, edible gardens) can integrate with policies and expertise of housing corporations.
(02)
In Ziepju (Riga, LV), an old Soviet social housing block needs renovation. The site will experiment with a new way forward in public renovation and transformation projects, building on inclusion and circularity, with the aim of transforming the old housing area into an attractive living environment.
(03)
Gadehavegaard, (Høje-Taastrup, DK) is a large monofunctional residential area with 986 apartments from the 1970s. It will undergo a comprehensive transformation by 2030 through re-positioning the neighbourhood as a suburban vision 2.0. Elements from the surrounding landscape will add qualities to the neighbourhood and support a continued perception of being suburban. The site will experiment with citizen involvement in redefining open spaces and their connection with nature and how circular principles guide the implementation of the transformation through reuse and recirculation of materials.

Transforming through symbiotic relationships

Focuses on how to optimize use of materials flow when rethinking urban landscapes in cities.

(01)
MIND (Milan, IT) is an innovation district in the early phase of designing the waste management system of a +350.000 sqm green and public space. A challenge concerns digitising and “greening” the huge construction supply chain while at the same time including the 70,000 daily user community to promote environmentally friendly behaviours – for instance in terms of mobility to reach the site which is around 15 minutes away from Milan city centre. The aim is to leverage on the ingenuity of the local communities and stakeholders to turn projects into a city-wide undertaking.
Existing view HT
(02)
Kalundborg Circular Campus (Kalundborg, DK) concerns urban transformation in a smaller city located 100 km west of Copenhagen with a thriving industrial ‘Symbiosis’ connecting more than 20 different streams of water, energy and materials, and with public and private stakeholders engaged across sectors and at multiple levels. The aim to develop a new irresistible circular campus as part of the Copenhagen-based Royal Danish Academy. Principles of circularity combined with art, design and inclusion will influence a broad coalition building of cross sectoral organizations and across current and future generations of professionals. The proximity of leading businesses and of several schools of vocational training, will contribute to this work where younger generations will be engaged in co-designing their own future context.

Reconciling cities with nature

Is about designing livable habitats and functional ecosystems from a multispecies perspective while rebalancing ‘land use’ to accommo-date resource generation and biodiversity.

(01)
.BTC City (Ljubljana, SI) aims at a transformation of the city center to become a regionally leading green, climate resistant and attractive symbiotic business city with shared value for different stakeholders (users, businesses, city, local community) by integrating nature and non-human species more directly in strategies for future investments
(02)
Cascina Falchera (Turin, IT) – an urban farming and educational area on the outskirts of the City of Turin, aims to regenerate the area through circularity principles and as part of an innovative urban regeneration movement to support the local community and reconnect people, especially the young generations, with natural spaces and the biodiversity and historical as well as and environmental values of the site.
(03)
At the site where the Herlev Asphalt Factory (Herlev, DK) used to be located, we will engage in a redefinition of a character that is important to reconcile city with nature: The Caretaker. This will imply experimenting with a role that embodies cross-disciplinary skills unfolding through the intersection of art, storytelling, biodiversity and circularity, for instance facilitating and curating social art pieces that seek to stimulate and strengthen the relationship between local inhabitants and introduce art as a method for social and ecological regeneration.
Photos from the workshop on May 31, 2023. Photo credit: Anže Krže
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Desire
Desire will create a movement that sets new standards and develops methods for transforming urban spaces