• The design should be in relation to Twente as "Dutch Silicon Valley" and in the frame of the development of space and the living environment
• Date: 13-15 September 2001
• Distribution of the participants among four groups with similar tasks
• Concrete task, design, project
• Using ICT tools

This time the topic of the Young Planners’ Workshop is shaped in the context of the significance of ICT for Twente and its urban structure and living environment within a fast developing internationalisation and a knowledge intensive economy. How can a technologically and economically rather traditional region as Twente integrate possibilities of ICT in order to distinguish itself from other regions of choice? How can specific characteristics of the Twente region be used in the frame of its ICT strategy? How can the transition of the business environment into a ‘knowledge park Twente’ advance this development? It is not a question of planning buildings and making use of space, but of establishing the living environment in such a flexible way that future developments and uncertainties can be taken into account.

With this background in mind, the topic of the YP Programme 2001 aims at the development of the existing business & science park into a knowledge park Twente and at the interaction between this future knowledge park and the quarter economy of Enschede. The region in question is the region east of Enschede (with university and business & science park) in relation to the development of the urban region of Enschede including its quarters with their own specific economic characteristics, urban structure, access routes and living environment. The business park (with many enterprises, a.o. Ericsson, Lucent) is situated south of the road Hengelo-Enschede, whereas the university and other knowledge centers, i.e. the Telematica Institute are located north of this road. Expected is an integration of those separate business sites and knowledge centers as well as a spatial integration of living and working. All of this is directed towards the establishment of high-level businesses in the ITC and service sector in synergy with the traditional urban (quarter) economy of Enschede. Important factors for attracting ITC businesses are the following: green environment; contacts with knowledge centers close by; quality of the living environment; road infrastructure; ICT infrastructure; support level.

Central questions as background for the YP Workshop 2001 are thus the following:

• How can the existing business sites and knowledge centers, now separated by the road Hengelo-Enschede, be better integrated in order to become an attractive knowledge park Twente?
• How can the relation between this knowledge park and the traditional quarter economies of Enschede be strengthened?
• Which are the most important phases, decisions, bottle-necks and tasks in this migration process?
• What are the most important decisions concerning urban design, migration patterns, centres of development etc. and how can flexibility in these decisions be maximised in the context of quickly changing consumer demands?

We plan to distinguish between two different parts:
a. a creative part aiming at developing new ideas (first half)
b. a problem-solving part which is more selective (second part).

a. The part in which a vision is to be developed is directed towards the elaboration of a future scenario and a programmatic strategy (including conceptual design) for the development of the knowledge park Twente. Two aspects have to be taken into account:

1. relation between business grounds and knowledge centres in the knowledge park
2. relation between the knowledge park Twente and the city economy (creating a link between city activity and knowledge park activity).

Participants will be distributed among four working groups. They will get the same task, however will partly get different background information and start from partly different boundary conditions in order to get diverse results. Thus the political and administrative context can be formulated differently for each working group (importance of economic development vs. sustainable development; presence of a strongly centralised management philosophy vs a strongly decentralised one based on networks).

The available background information can differ from working group to working group. Possibly one of the groups can be asked to emphasise certain aspects. By the way the composition of the working groups already guarantees results differing from each other.

b. The problem-solving part aims at the approach of concrete problems for the spatial design resulting from the scenarios just developed, e.g.

• How should be re-developed the existing business park?
• How will the situation of the green zone be solved?
• Which activities should be part of the quarter economy, which activities are part of the knowledge park?
• Which will be the role of present transport centres, as possible nucleus of expansion?
• The spatial design of the knowledge park, the relation between knowledge park and city, including transport and traffic infrastructure.
• The expected application of ICT infrastructure (wideband networks and applications) and the influence on living, working, R&D, studying etc.

Application of ICT must have a practical value: no abundance of ICT taking a long preparation time without concrete benefits. At present we have the following in mind:

• Prior to the Workshop: A website will be installed having links to the extra net of the Telematica Institute (electronic archive) as well as to the sites of interested organisations so that documentation material will be available to the participants beforehand.
• During the Workshop it will be possible to work with virtual reality technology using DigiMap for designing spatial solutions (initiative: OOM, ITC,UT)
• Several PCs disposing of Internet, e-mail and video conferencing will be available (initiative: Telematic Institute)
• If possible: during the workshop a wideband teleconsulting facility will be set up between the Telematica Institute and the ITC in Enschede (alternative location: Municipality of Enschede). This facility offers experts at different locations access to geo-information. We are investigating whether this is possible via a new pilot in GigaPort. We also have to look into the possibility of a linkage with DigMap. VROM might be a possible sponsor of such a project (initiative: Telematica Institute).
• Workshop Participants can consult video fragments made beforehand or realtime images via webcams (University of Twente).

THE SELECTION OF CANDIDATES IS CLOSED.

For more information, please contact: secretariat@isocarp.org or b.colin@unesco.org.