Orgware-Shift
The built environment plays a crucial role in tackling climate change. At present, the focus is often on reducing emissions through the physical ‘hardware’ (infrastructure and materials), whilst around 70 per cent of the potential for reduction actually lies in the use phase: the everyday behaviour (or ‘software’) of residents in relation to energy, mobility, consumption and food. To unlock this potential, a vital intermediate layer is missing: ‘orgware’. This refers to the forms of collaboration, roles and rules that enable the organisation of continuous learning and collective climate-positive behaviour, whilst reinforcing the intrinsic motivation of residents and users of the area. The creative industries excel at visualising and organising one-off participation and interventions, but struggle when it comes to structurally embedding this change. The practical question is therefore: how do you jointly design and validate ‘orgware’, and how do you embed and scale this structurally within area development?
The resulting main research question of the project is: How can we give orgware for climate-neutral living a permanent, structural position within area development processes, and which design and learning methodologies (as new Key Enabling Methodologies) are required for this?
Designers, researchers, developers and residents are working closely together on the project. The Schiehaven Noord area development in Rotterdam serves as the central testing ground, supplemented by parallel reference cases with developers (ERA Contour, BPD, TBI), thereby introducing variation in context from the outset. Through systemic design, participation and the use of, for example, provotypes and design fictions, new governance and collaboration models are designed, tested directly in practice and monitored reflexively.
The project delivers a transferable ‘orgware’ methodology, including an openly accessible toolbox (methodological steps, working methods and templates), with decision-making and rule-setting templates, and an iterative roadmap for creative professionals and developers. The impact is a shift from occasional public participation to structural co-governance. In the long term, this will help ensure that ‘Paris-proof’ living environments become the new standard, as sustainable behaviour becomes the norm and is organised collectively.
This project is a broad transdisciplinary collaboration led by Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (Creating010). They are working together with creative agencies (Noorderwind, CITYFÖRSTER, Studio for New Realities), academic partners (Delft University of Technology, Systemic Co-Design Expertise Network), public authorities and private sector organisations (Rotterdam City Council/Climate Academy, ERA Contour, TBI, BPD Area Development) as well as representatives of the future residents and users of the areas involved (including Schiehaven Noord).
