For Co/Lab: Building for Wellbeing, three design teams have been selected to work with Heijmans on three concrete projects. Jop Japenga of Afdeling Buitengewone Zaken is focusing on the Bazaar Beverwijk property development case, Rombout Frieling Lab is working on the Heijmans Horizon home and Philémonne Jaasma and Aya Bergkamp of Cocosmos are exploring wellbeing-focused stakeholder engagement within the infrastructure case. Working across area development, housing and infrastructure, they are examining how the user perspective can be systematically translated into design choices and concrete interventions.
Practical expertise meets design
As a creator of healthy living environments, Heijmans aims not only to deliver physical solutions, but also to create places where people feel comfortable, healthy and safe. Within the Co/Lab, Heijmans’ practical expertise is brought together with the investigative and imaginative approach of designers.
“We are particularly looking forward to the conversations that arise when different worlds come together,” Heijmans explains. “Design studios often approach societal challenges differently from the way we are used to: through research and imagination and sometimes by deliberately disrupting established ideas.”
Bazaar Beverwijk
Jop Japenga of social design agency Afdeling Buitengewone Zaken is working on the Bazaar Beverwijk property development case. A new neighbourhood is planned on a former industrial site, but its future residents are not yet known. Japenga is investigating how their social needs can nevertheless be considered from an early stage.
“We see this Co/Lab as an excellent opportunity to set a much-needed shift in motion: from building for square metres to building for wellbeing,” says Japenga.
The Horizon home
Rombout Frieling Lab is focusing on the Heijmans Horizon home, a timber housing concept for low-rise developments on the edges of cities and beyond. Drawing on his vision of ‘inner design’, Frieling is exploring which spatial and sensory design choices can support residents’ mental health.
“Our need for security, closeness and connection is under severe pressure in a society that has become increasingly ‘disembodied’, partly because of technology. Through spatial design, we can make those needs tangible,” Frieling explains.
From disruption to wellbeing
Philémonne Jaasma and Aya Bergkamp of Cocosmos are working with Heijmans’ infrastructure team on wellbeing-focused stakeholder engagement. Using design ethnography, they immerse themselves in everyday practice. They are investigating how stakeholder engagement can not only reduce disruption, but also actively support the wellbeing of the surrounding community during an infrastructure project.
“Through a design-led approach, we reveal the bigger picture: the interests, rules and patterns that shape a challenge,” Philémonne and Aya explain. “In this way, design becomes an exercise in creating coherence, with attention to the system as a whole.”
Building from people
During the first phase, the designers will develop new ways to explore users’ needs and experiences. In 2027, these insights will be translated into interventions and practical design decisions. In this way, Co/Lab: Building for Wellbeing marks a shift from building for people to building from people.
