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Introducing Our Walk App and Datascape - an open-source tool
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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A tool for decision-makers, architects, urban designers and planners to interactively explore the wishes and challenges of people in an area.
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

Capture Your City. Credit: Morten de Fine Olivarius
From Residential Blocks in Riga to Urban Spaces in Denmark, to Turin's Blue Mountains. Danish Architecture Center’s (DAC) photo contest, "Capture Your City 2024," in collaboration with the EU project Desire has achieved historic high participation with over 8,000 submitted photos from cities across Europe. This record number of 8,015 entries from 26 countries demonstrates the contest's growing popularity and Europe’s commitment to architecture and urban development.
Wildemanbuurt in Amsterdam, Netherlands is a neighbourhood often depicted negatively. However, inhabitants are determined to change this narrative. The Desire project is powered by the energy of this community. “We try to work with what is there and nurture good ideas, foster new relationships. In the end, it's really about agency and working together to create a new neighbourhood from a place of trust,” says Rosalie Bak, Community Builder and Social Designer for the Desire partner Stichting Samenwonen-Samenleven. Have a look at the new Desire film and meet also the youngsters from Young Osdorp United that are making videos and photography to tell great stories from the area.
Ideas abound at Ole Rømer’s School where 40 students presented their ideas for an irresistible local community of the future.

Meet us at these events

Kulturhus Bunkeren, Olof Palmes Allé 11. 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark 14.05.2024
The Desire partner Danish Industry and Aarhus municipality invite you to a conference and Desire workshop "ImperfectCity - urban development with all for all". The area in Skejby (Aarhus) by the old journalism college is to be changed. Join us when we discuss how to create an area with room for everyone and where the imperfect plays a positive role. We would also like your suggestions on what is needed if we are to succeed. Free - but no-show fee of 500 DKK without cancellation. Click to read more and sign up.
Event
Bryghuspladsen 10, 1473 Copenhagen K, Denmark 06.06.2024
Join the festive finale of the Capture Your City competition, where we will reveal the winners and you get to see which photos made it into this year's exhibition.

As something new this year, the competition has also taken place in other European cities. Over 5,000 photos participated in the competition. An international jury with representatives from Riga, Turin, Milan, Amsterdam, and Ljubljana, has selected the 56 photos that are part of the exhibition. This year the competition has run in collaboration with the New European Bauhaus project ‘Desire – an Irresistible Circular Society’.

At the opening, we will reveal which photos made it to the final, as well as the winners of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prizes. Come explore the jury’s reasons for choosing the winners.

Enjoy the nice summer afternoon in Bryghuspladsen, in front of DAC where we serve a refreshing apple-mint drink and chocolate rye bread, made from surplus bread, chocolate, and nuts. As part of the opening you can experience an art performance from the Desire project inspired by this year’s theme New Beauty.

Program
17:00: Free apple-mint drinks and chocolate rye bread from Bloxeats
17:30: Welcome, performance, and prize ceremony
18:30: Thank you for today
The photo competition is supported by the philanthropic association Realdania and developed in collaboration with the New European Bauhaus project Desire – an Irresistible Circular Society. Desire is funded by the EU.

Click to read more!
Event
BLOX, Bryghuspladsen, 1473 Copenhagen K, Denmark 10.09.2024
Join Desire and our 24 partners for this event in Copenhagen, where we share our results, tools and learnings - and look into the future and the New European Bauhaus in the coming years. Stay tuned for more info.
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 - a large business, shopping, recreation, entertainment, and cultural centre located 3 km from the city centre of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia - has a visionary goal: to transform the centre into a regionally leading green, climate-resistant, and attractive symbiotic business hub. This transformation aims to create shared value for various stakeholders, including users, businesses, the city, and the local community. (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.
Our Walk App - an open-source tool
A tool for decision-makers, architects, urban designers and planners to interactively explore the wishes and challenges of people in an area.
BTC City - Hackathon February 2024. Credit: BTC d.d.
Get updated on the Desire project to watch it blossom
Desire
Desire will create a movement that sets new standards and develops methods for transforming urban spaces