Delft Schieoevers Noord Masterplan
Core idea
Innovation district on canal-side industrial lands
Why it matters
Adds housing/jobs near TU Delft
Description
The Schieoevers Noord masterplan, adopted by the municipality of Delft in 2020, guides the transformation of canal-side industrial land along the Schie into a dense mixed-use innovation district. Developed with an environmental framework ordering the phased coexistence of remaining industry and new development, it plans thousands of dwellings and substantial workspace for making and technology firms, exploiting proximity to TU Delft and the rail corridor and re-orienting the city towards its waterfront.
Significance
The plan is a characteristic Dutch example of the 'productive city' agenda, which seeks to intensify housing while retaining manufacturing and innovation employment within the urban fabric rather than displacing it. Its pairing of a university knowledge base with incremental brownfield transformation places it in wider European debates on innovation districts, and its regulatory approach to mixing industry and housing is studied as a model under the Netherlands' new environment and planning law.
What shaped it
- The Next American Metropolis / Charter of the New Urbanism (1993 / 1996)
- Transit-oriented development (TOD) (1993)
- The compact city (1973-1990s)
- Landscape urbanism (Waldheim) (1997-2006)