When faced with extensive spatial assignments, municipalities or project developers often appoint supervisors and quality teams. Because we know how to connect our vision of cultural history with social and commercial goals in an inspired way, we are regularly invited for this purpose. Paul, for example, is an advisor to BOEi (restoration, adaptive reuse and transformation of cultural heritage) and a member of the Quality Team of the Dutch Water Defence Lines (world heritage), Marinke the chairperson of the Waalfront and West Spatial Quality Team in Nijmegen and a member of the Quality Team Afsluitdijk (enclosure dam in the former Zuiderzee), and Vita a member of the Advisory Committee on Environmental Quality of the municipality of Delft. We ensure that cultural heritage and spatial qualities are safeguarded and recognise opportunities for additional incentives in this respect. In doing so, it does not matter which side of the table we are on; what matters to us is content and context. Our active involvement in transformation processes, city labs or the sale of public real estate usually follows from structural visions, and architectural or transformation guidelines drawn up by us. As a member of independent, multidisciplinary think tanks, we advise governing authorities on matters such as building aesthetics, sustainability, user programmes, laws and regulations, and planning instruments. As a mediator we bring parties and spatial functions together in processes where needs and motivations of stakeholders differ. Through the years, we have built up an extensive network in the world of real estate, design and heritage.

PAUL MEURS

– Member Quality Team World Heritage Site Dutch Water Defence Lines, on behalf of the site holder
– Member Quality Team Topicus, on behalf of the municipality of Deventer
– Member BOEi Investment Committee, National Society for the Restoration and Adaptive Reuse of Cultural Heritage (Nationale Maatschappij tot Restaureren en Herbestemmen van Cultureel Erfgoed), Amersfoort
– Supervisor redevelopment Oude Kooi, Zeeheldenbuurt and Tuinstadwijk in Leiden, together with urban planner Martin Verwoest
– Supervisor Doubling Oosterpark, Amsterdam, on behalf of the municipality of Amsterdam

MARINKE STEENHUIS

– Member of Quality Team Water Authority Rhine and IJssel
– Member Quality Team Artis Amsterdam
– Member Quality Team Afsluitdijk, on behalf of Rijkswaterstaat
– Member of the independent advisory council development Waterloopbos
– Board member of the Carnegie Foundation
– Board member of BPD (Bouwfonds Property Development) Culture Fund

VITA TEUNISSEN

– Member Advisory Committee on Environmental Quality (building aesthetics) municipality of Delft
– Member Jury Lieven de Key Penning Haarlem 2022
– Member Jury BNG Bank Erfgoedprijs 2023

ORGANISATIONAL ADVICE ANDS AUDITS

There is a growing demand for SteenhuisMeurs’ audits: systemic analyses in which the reflection on a (civil) organisation or foundation is linked to the characteristics and the Umfeld of the city in which the organisation is active. Is there a reason to change course? And if so, what will work? For the Van der Leeuwkring in Rotterdam, Marinke reflected on the significance of the foundation in the changing urban climate, for the Urban Development department of Almere she made De geleefde stad (The lived city): the characteristics of Almere (2020), in which the experiences, lifestyles and ideas of the residents of Almere were collected in 15 citizen tables. In The Hague she analysed the course of Stichting Wonen in The Hague (2021), a foundation in which developers, investors and brokers are united. The results are presented in a lecture or a film, and provide the client with new energy for the discussion on the new course, based on the individual character of city and organisation.

GUIDE TO TRANSFORMATION FRAMEWORKS

commissioned by: Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE)

Since The Dutch Belvedere Memorandum (1999), the heritage sector has experienced radical changes: from an object-oriented to an area-oriented approach, from a sectoral to an integral ambition, from conservation-driven to development-oriented, from facts to stories and from descriptive to participative. The steering instruments for governing authorities are also subject to change. A monument description or protected status is frequently no longer sufficient as a guideline for a complicated redevelopment process. A cultural heritage assessment describes the valuable components and properties, but does not provide starting points for further development of these values. Without actually designing, how can you get from a valuation assessment or cultural heritage research to the formulation of design themes, core values and characteristics that offer comfort and a grip on the design and development process, which is often under high pressure? 
With the input of a broad working group of heritage officials, cultural historians, designers and developers, SteenhuisMeurs has been commissioned by RCE to draw up a guideline for an instrument to contribute to high-quality spatial transformations of heritage. The aim is not to prepare a ready-made action plan, because the application options and the process integration of the frameworks are too diverse for that. The guideline defines the necessity and the function of a value-driven transformation framework, it provides an overview of the components of such a framework, and it presents inspiring examples of existing frameworks. The next step is the integration of this relatively new set of instruments into the environmental system.