Already note in your diary the date of Thursday 4 November 2021!

Earlier this year, KIVI organised a Teams Meeting to bring various departments closer together. The chairmen of the Land Use and Water Management Department, David van Raalten, and of the Construction Department, Ton Voets, attended that and are now following it up. The Construction Department already had a symposium on green urbanisation in the pen. Subsequently, the LW department has now joined it further given the complexity of this task! Both departments are now jointly organising an autumn conference on what the Netherlands will look like in 25 years.

The point of departure is the enormous building task we face in the Netherlands: no fewer than one million houses will have to be built in the coming years, but where will there be room for them? Should we start building in the Green Heart and lose more green space that way, or could we perhaps further densify the current cities by adding one million homes? What is realistic and what is utopian? Here, good land use and water management are not just important issues, but direction at the front for which options are best to achieve a climate-robust design.

All this in order to eventually arrive at a green and sustainable urban planning, taking climate change into account and valuing the green world that surrounds us with full respect. So From Grey to Green, also title of the symposium, taken from De Ingenieur, which published an article with the same title in April 2020.

These questions and more will be addressed at the autumn congress on 4 November 2021 in an afternoon and evening session at KIVI's headquarters at Prinsessegracht in The Hague.

Speakers will include politicians, policymakers, builders, academics and students. Each will unfold a vision from his or her own experience and expertise or try to answer these pressing questions. The conference will be led by Celina van den Bank, business developer at KIVI, and emeritus professor Wim Poelman. It promises to be an instructive and exciting day at the edge of the Malieveld in The Hague.

Mark the date of Thursday 4 November 2021 in your diary already, further details will follow via the website.

We hope to welcome you there!

Kind regards,

Ton Voets, Chairman KIVI Construction Section

David van Raalten, Chairman KIVI Section Land Use and Water Management