Urban ecology rethinks the relations of people and environment within the city, now understood as a living place co-inhabited by human and non-human forms of life. Such a city operates not by building machines that control processes, but by the mutual adaptation of living systems. In doing so Urban ecology reframes the everyday experience of urban environments, emphasising a more intimate sense of place in which our environment is acknowledged as a living home that determines our wellbeing.

Within this framework, the key challenge for the Amsterdam Pilot in T-Factor looks at temporary uses as drivers for a green and nature-driven regeneration, supporting and enhancing the further development of the Amsterdam Science Park towards long term objectives of sustainability, health & wellbeing and, overall, quality of life.

Through this challenge, the Amsterdam Pilot seeks to explore the nexus between urban greening & wilderness, arts-led practices and community interventions to advance novel forms of understanding of the living environment. This is meant to support the emergence of new ways of interacting with, appreciating and (re)valuing nature in cities – as a key precondition for nature to have a say in the present and future of the Park and its surroundings.

3 Missions give direction and meaning to temporary uses at ASP:

1. Wild and Cultivated Places
2. Do-It-Together ecopractices
3. Alternative Masterplan

Taken together, these missions follow different yet strategic objectives of steering novel visions and perspectives on nature and wilderness; community building and creation of relational capital in support to both existing and emerging bottom-up eco-practices; creation of new placemaking tools that can advance more participatory and collaborative forms of governance of the site and its natural assets.

With a strategy that addresses multiple target-groups – young students, children, teachers, artists, families and residents, policymakers, but also ‘nature’ itself – the Amsterdam Pilot aims to unlock positive results and achievements at multiple scales – individual, community, system – including in terms of quality public spaces, enhanced knowledge and awareness on nature, new skills and capacities, increased motivation and desire to adopt sustainable and green lifestyles, improved collaboration, enhanced participation and inclusion in placemaking, among others.