From housing to neighbourhoods

The challenge: from ambition to everyday decisions

HEEMwonen does more than develop and manage homes. Through its ‘Building Neighbourhoods Together’ vision, the housing association has set itself a clear ambition: to actively contribute to liveable, resilient neighbourhoods in Kerkrade and Landgraaf. Social value is not an extra layer added to a real estate project. It is part of the starting point.

But that is where the real work begins.

How do you translate such a vision into the hundreds of decisions made throughout a development process? What does it mean on a Monday morning, when a project manager is balancing a watertight business case, a tight schedule, technical requirements and a challenging operating model?

HEEMwonen did not need another policy document. It wanted to equip the people making those decisions every day with the knowledge, tools and confidence to make different choices.

Our approach: learn through real projects

Meaningful places start with understanding the people, communities and qualities already there.

That principle also shaped the programme. Rather than developing a standard training course, BRAND created a tailored learning trajectory combining placemaking, place branding, concept development and participation. Throughout the programme, theory was immediately applied to projects currently on HEEMwonen’s table.

Across three sessions, we moved deliberately from looking differently to working differently.

1. The power of collaboration
   What does it mean to develop a place together? And how does the role of a housing association change when it moves beyond building homes to becoming a connector and catalyst within a neighbourhood? Guest speaker Parcifal van den Berg shared the vision and approach behind De Vroon in The Hague, a distinctive community-led development.
2. Creating meaningful places
   Before deciding what to add, understand what is already there. Who lives here? What gives the neighbourhood its identity? Which communities, networks and qualities can a development build upon? Participants explored these questions through three current HEEMwonen developments. Guest speaker Anneke Verhagen added an intensive masterclass on concept development for housing associations.
3. Innovation through place testing
   Not every idea needs to be designed, calculated and approved before it can be tried. Place testing makes it possible to test interventions in practice before committing to them permanently. What works can stay and grow. What does not work has cost relatively little, while still generating valuable knowledge.

Every session ended with participants applying the lessons directly to their own projects. No theory without practice.

Seeing what is possible

The programme concluded with an excursion to projects where social value is already shaping physical development.

At Berlijnplein in Utrecht, participants saw how years of temporary cultural programming became the foundation for a permanent cultural cluster in Leidsche Rijn. Experimentation here was not an interim solution, but part of the development strategy.

At Legends in Leidsche Rijn, a Dura Vermeer residential concept for people aged 55 and over showed how social connection can become the organising principle of a housing concept rather than an amenity added afterwards.

In The Hague, conversations with residents, initiators and professionals from De Vroon, De Zorgkamer, MuseumLab and De Wereldkeuken demonstrated four different ways of creating social value by making room for initiative, ownership and collaboration.

The aim was not to copy these places. It was to experience first-hand what changes when you start with people rather than with the programme, building or business case.

The result: a different conversation about real estate

One of the most immediate results is a shared language. Where ‘social value’ could previously mean something different to every person around the table, HEEMwonen’s teams now have a common framework for discussing it. That makes social value easier to address in project meetings, steering groups and investment proposals.

The programme is also changing the work itself. Participants involve residents earlier, look more deliberately at the communities and qualities already present, and recognise that relatively small interventions can sometimes have more impact on a neighbourhood than large physical investments.

Most importantly, the central question is shifting.

From: How do we deliver this project?

Towards: How can this project contribute to a meaningful neighbourhood?

That shift matters because building neighbourhoods together cannot depend on a handful of enthusiastic professionals. It needs to become part of how an organisation works.

“From paper to practice. Rinske helped us, with great energy and inspiration, to translate our vision into concrete choices and implementation.”

Nenad Bogdanovic, Director of Real Estate, HEEMwonen

From building homes to building neighbourhoods

Municipalities, housing associations and developers increasingly face the same challenge: how do you make social value part of everyday development practice rather than an ambition in a strategy document?

That requires more than inspiration. It requires a shared language, practical tools and the ability to translate ambitions into decisions about projects, investments, partnerships and programming.

BRAND develops tailored trajectories that bring strategy, learning and practice together. We work with real projects and real dilemmas, so that teams do not simply learn something new, but start working differently.