Schiphol airport connects the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (MRA) with the world, boosting trade and tourism. Air traffic is also responsible for adverse levels of noise and air pollution, with a negative impact on the quality of living around airports. Due to the spiralling demand for new dwellings in the MRA, 80,000 new homes will be built around Schiphol in the coming years. Recent studies showed that the design of buildings and cities influence the loudness of aircraft noise in and around buildings. The results render new possibilities to curb the exposure to severe noise levels, and to improve the comfort and safety of residential areas near flight routes. However, the level of comfort and safety of urban areas doesn’t solely depend on sound. Instead, together with heat stress, air quality, solar radiation, water resilience and wind flows, sound is just one of the variables which are important for the comfort and sustainability of urban microclimates. The rapid depletion of resources and building materials, and the colossal ecological footprint of the building industry, urges designers and developers to rethink the ways we built and design. As the potential of noise-adaptive design may open new horizons to develop the architectural vernacular of airport regions, the question arises if the results can galvanize a wider transition towards a more sustainable and circular building industry.
Illustration construction noise reduction
Workshops Make Some Noise
Make Some Noise comprises of various workshops in which each workshop focusses on a different theme and scale. During the workshops we will use Rijsenhout as a reference area. However, the results must be applicable everywhere around airports. The coming workshop will take place at Wednesday June 19, during WeMakeThe.City.
Each workshop is tailored to the theme and the outcomes of the previous workshops. Participants will receive a detailed program by email, at least one week before the workshop.
Who can participate?
Are you living in the Amsterdam region, than you are well acquainted with the buzz of metropolitan areas, and probably familiar with aircraft noise from airplanes heading to Schiphol. We kindly invite everyone with an open, curious and creative mindset to think beyond the perks and cons of living close to Schiphol. Instead of giving the stage to ‘experts’ we invite you to help us define the essentials for a good and sustainable living environment in airport regions. So are you a pensioner, student, urban professional, designer or politician; we are all experts on living, and that’s precisely the kind of expertise we are looking for during the workshop.
What you can expect
During the workshop, we will focus on the question ‘what are the fundamentals of good living environments in airport regions?’. The workshop will start with a few inspirational talks by designers and scientists working on ‘living’, ‘sustainable urban design’ and ‘aircraft noise’. After the talks the floor is yours and you are invited to take a seat around three ‘design tables’. The workshop will be held in Dutch.
How to register?
Please contact Martijn Lugten for more information, download the Make some Noise flyer, or to sign up for Make Some Noise via e-mail.
Make Some Noise
Why is this topic important?
The MRA and the Haarlemmermeer municipality have the ambition to become a global leader in the transition towards a circular and sustainable economy. The presence of Schiphol in the MRA and the Haarlemmermeer puts a constant strain on the quality of life in the area, but also creates unique possibilities. With the limited amount of space in the MRA, and the enormous challenge to develop affordable new dwellings around Schiphol, there is an urgent need to look for new ideas to develop the available space in a way which can benefit both residents and the environment, off the beaten path.
What are the goals of Make Some Noise?
On the short run, we invite experts to join us to develop new construction materials and building methods which 1) reduce the exposure to (aircraft) noise, but which are also 2) designed and manufacturable in a sustainable and circular way. On top of that, the project has the objective to study how noise-adaptive design can be harnessed to create safe, sustainable and healthy urban microclimate in a broader sense of the word. At a glance, Make Some Noise will focus on the following questions:
- How can noise-adaptive design improve the resilience of urban heat (island) stress and (peak) rainfall while improving the air quality around Schiphol?
- How can circular and bio-based construction materials be used to reduce the transmission of sound through facades and around buildings?
- How can buildings, or building components, be designed and built in a demountable and circular way to create flexible and adaptive urban areas?
- How can technical innovations be used for the needs of residents to create social sustainable residential areas around Schiphol?
On the long run, Make Some Noise has the ambition to move from ideas and concepts to real projects, building(s) (components) and living labs. This means that we are currently exploring funding tracks, as part of a long-term research agenda for the MRA.
What makes ‘Make Some Noise’ unique?
Circular and sustainable building projects are not novel or unique. In fact, there are many examples of building projects in which the design of buildings and facades attenuate the sound levels inside and outside buildings. However, these projects mainly focus on (rail) road traffic noise, without a particular focus on the sustainability of materials and manufacturing. In the first place, Make Some Noise aims to connect the fields of building acoustics and circular and sustainable manufacturing and design. This means that the results can be used for any building project where sound abatement is a key priority.
Although the outcomes may potentially be used in various contexts, Make Some Noise focusses specifically on airport regions. Often, airports and local governments create funding opportunities for local initiatives, which give residents a share in the profits of the airport. The results of Make Some Noise can help airports and governments to further substantiate their ambitions to enhance the quality of living in airport regions in a broad sense. This could lead to opportunities for new partnerships between residents, municipalities and airports which aim to improve the quality of residential areas and the (spatial) environment.
Register for this event by sending an e-mail to Martijn Lugten.
This event will be in Dutch and English
