1000 Geveltuinen - Rotterdam

The campaign "1000 Geveltuinen" was launched in Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 2020 as a grassroots action to build 1000 facade gardens in the city. The action was a great success, quickly gaining media interest and receiving financial and substantive support from the local government. The project only took place from May 22nd 2020 (the day of biodiversity) to September 30th 2020, but its success convinced the city to take some long-term actions. The Municipality of Rotterdam started encouraging its inhabitants to take out concrete tiles from in front of their houses and to build facade gardens. Furthermore, the municipality created a manual and educational materials for its inhabitants. This grassroots action turned into a municipal programme, which engages people in creating green spaces in their nearest neighborhood helping the city to deal with challenges connected to climate change, such as urban heat island effects or local floods. This community-based agreement highlights the potential for collaboration between a municipality, NGOs and citizens.

Overview

Type of instrument:

Agreement-based or cooperative instrument›Community-based agreement with the support of the government

Challenges addressed

Green space management (e.g. accessibility)
Flood risk: pluvial and fluvial / soil permeability
Heat stress and heat island effect
Social cohesion
Reconnection to the biosphere / environmental education
Human health, comfort and well-being

Consideration of nature-based solutions:

The main objective of the programme is to convince inhabitants to transform their house facades into green spaces. The "1000 Geveltuinen" campaign itself resulted in building more than 1000 facade gardens in Rotterdam (partially financed by the Municipality) and the city still encourages inhabitants to create more, combining social, environmental and economic benefits. The programme helps the city to mitigate climate change and deal with challenges such as urban heat islands and local floods. Moreover, it motivates people to spend time outside resulting in various social interactions and a sense of empowerment. The facade gardens increase the quality of life in Rotterdam.

Targeted (peri-)urban areas:

External building greens

Good practice characteristics:

Effective

Potential to be replicated / upscaled

Innovative

Policy business case

Inclusivity

Governance

Non-governmental actor(s)

Initiating body:

Citizens or community groups / NGOs

Details about how the instrument was designed:

The instrument was initated as a grassroots action by Raymond Landegent - a sustainable entrepreneur from Rotterdam. Everything started from a Facebook post with the idea of building 1000 facade gardens in the city. The project quickly interested media and gained financial support from the Municipality, which offered funding for 100 gardens. The culminating point of the "1000 Geveltuinen" project was building the longest facade garden (200 m). The actions of Raymond Landegent stimulated the local government to create a manual and educational materials about facade gardens.

Targeted actors:

Citizens or community groups (CBOs), NGOs

Details about the implementation:

In Rotterdam, you do not need permission to make your own facade garden. The only regulation is to leave 1.8 m free in the front of the building for pedestrians. To this day, the city encourages residents to build their own gardens and subsidises part of them. A NGO - Opzoomer Mee - supports the Municipality in distributing funds. During the programme, 175 facade gardens were built by the Groenemorgen (Raymond Landegent's creative agency) and 684 were created by Rotterdam inhabitants (100 were subisdised by the city). Inhabitants can also participate in the national competition for the municipality with the highest number of removed tiles, donating these tiles to the "Tile Counter".

How did the government support the instrument?:

The Municipality of Rotterdam is known for their green policy. The first Rotterdam Resilience Strategy emphasises the importance of grassroots actions and self-management citizens' initiatives. Facade gardens, green roofs and urban gardens are a few of the many nature-based solutions implemented and subsidised by the city. From the beginning of this programme, inhabitants have been encouraged to apply for subsidies from the municipality. The city also created a manual and educational materials (e.g. videos and flyers) for its residents. This policy instrument is thus an example of a long-term collaboration between the Municipality, NGOs and inhabitants.

Financing

Sources of funding:

Public local authority’s budget

Residents' funds

Budget:

Unknown

Details about instrument financing:

During the 1000 Geveltuinen campaign, 100 gardens were subsidised by the Municipality for those residents with small budgets. Currently you can receive a 75 euro municipal subsidy for building a 4 m facade garden on your own or even 500 euro for acting with others (max. 375 euro for 5 gardens + bonus).

Monitoring, evaluation and impacts

Is a monitoring framework in place?:

Did an evaluation take place?:

Achieved outcomes and impacts:

The main result of the programme was builiding approximately 1000 facade gardens, which was the collaboration of the NGOs, the Municipality and residents. Among others, the facade gardens help to mitigate climate change and deal with challenges such as urban heat islands and local floodings. The project gave residents a sense of empowerement and enabled social interactions. Even in 2022, the Municipality of Rotterdam still promotes the idea of facade gardens and subsidises a number of them every year.

Success factors and lessons learned:

The key to success was the joint involvement of NGOs, the Municipality and residents. Thanks to media interest, the whole country quickly heard of "1000 Geveltuinen". Also, the project was in accordance with Rotterdam's city policy which emphasises the engagement of residents in grassroots initiatives. From the very beginning, the programme received financial, promotional and substantive support which only helped to build more and more facade gardens. The development of guidance by the government and official support for the originally grassroots initiative also contributed to the high number of facade gardens that were created.

Sources and further information

References

List of references:

https://rotterdammakeithappen.nl/en/rotterdam-zet-door/a-thousand-facade-gardens-in-rotterdam/ https://www.rotterdam.nl/meedenken-doen/uw-buurt-opfleuren/ https://www.rotterdam.nl/wonen-leven/geveltuinen/ https://www.rotterdam.nl/apps/rotterdam.nl/wonen-leven/zelfbeheer/ https://www.groenemorgen.org/project1000geveltuinen https://www.opzoomermee.nl/groen/ https://placemaking-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/listing-uploads/file/2021/03/Facade-Garden-Manual.pdf https://resilientcitiesnetwork.org/downloadable_resources/Network/Rotterdam-Resilience-Strategy-English.pdf

Photos

Karina Amman / Agentur Groenemorgen