We are pleased to announce that we have been preselected for an invited competition to make a masterplan vision proposal for a new sustainable development in Geneva, Switzerland. The project contains a diverse set of programs including light industry, commerce, schools, cultural centers, a regional sports facility, and more than 2000 units of housing, all spread over a 57 Hectare site.  JDS is collaborating on the project with Maxwan Architects + Urbanists , along with Agenceter (Landscape Architecture) and Egis Engineers (Transport and Energy Engineering).

‘This project offers a unique opportunity to rethink the way we develop agricultural land at the edge of our cities – a problem endemic throughout the world. By systematically organizing the various exchanges and flows passing through the site – people, water, energy, and waste – and learning from the inherited logics of the exisiting site, we hope to provide a new model for sustainable development.’ -Ryan Neiheiser, Project Leader, JDS Architects

Commissioned by the Ministry of Housing, Spatial planning and Environment of The Netherlands, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (NEAA) and in collaboration with the Atelier of the Chief Architect, this project studies the opportunities of environmental development for the city of Tilburg.

The resulting visions have been presented in Ede, The Netherlands, in a first exhibition during the Congress for Sustainable Cities and will be part of a traveling show in 2010.

Julien De Smedt was interviewed for an article on desiring sustainably in the new magazine Above, out now in magazine shops worldwide!

Check out the article which also includes interviews with Charles Renfro of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Marc Kushner and Mattias Hollwich of HWKN, and Florian Idenburg of SO-IL.

Here’s a little bit about Above:

Responding to the urgent need for sustainable living, Above magazine calls upon the environmentally conscious and everyone else interested in the future by sharpening its focus on the endangered beauty of the world.

It is our firm belief that photography, the plastic arts, fashion, architecture and design can be instrumental in raising awareness about the need to preserve nature and we aim to share our opinionated, yet aesthetic vision, with our readers.

Check out an online preview of the magazine HERE

Click on to find out more about Above

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Stefan Behling gave a superb lecture on the glabal environment and the way we live in cities and the small changes we can make in order to radically reduce carbon emissions, he then went on the describe Masdar city and how it was conceived. One of the core principles is to be a zero carbon city, compared to the average 1,100,000 Tonnes of Co2 that is put into our atmosphere every year by other comparable sized cities. The goal is to use good, sustainable architecture to bring down the carbon footprint of a person in the worlds most extreme climate, where the UAE has the highest carbon footprint per capita in the world. Stefan showed figures that prove by using intelligent innovative sustainable design we can reach targets of 20% our current carbon footprint per capita that in turn give people not only a lower carbon footprint but a better quality of life.

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European Future Energy Forum – Day Two, 10th June 2009

Today’s focus was on the transport industry and how it is far to slow in catching up to adequate levels to mitigate climate change, Former UK Minister for Transport Steven Norris chaired an extremely interesting debate which he hopes will influence UK and European policy to be much tougher on Transportation and Energy companies to invest in renewable and fossil fuel free technologies to turn the transport industry into a sustainable one. Contrasting against Bianca Jaggers statement that we have 10 years left, the transport industry heads pessimistically say it will take 35 years to implement policy change.

Round table discussions involved talking about Masdar new PRT (public Rapid Transport) tram system which will be a public transport system that will completely replace cars in Masdar city relying solely on electricity generated from the solar power, currently the technology transports the entire container traffic around Rotterdam port and Masdar wish to change this into public transport that can transport 6 people from one destination to the next without stopping and picking up other passengers, it will have 3000 PRTs running underneath the ground in Masdar when it is finished!

European Future Energy Forum – Day One 9th June 2009

Today’s debate revolved around changing energy policy at Governmental level with Bianca Jagger, Chair, World Future Council and Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador, opening up with a alarming statement that we have only 10 years to improve our stance and global agenda towards climate change and sustainability before the carbon levels are irreversible and shall permanently damage the planet affecting 300 million humans worldwide.

In contrast to this Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s new carbon neutral, zero waste and energy positive city gave an optimistic talk about breaking the boundaries of sustainability as we know it and creating a society that is engineered and invented to subvert radically changing our lifestyle but embracing sustainability as a way of life. An extremely interesting and positive development it will be the first realised example of a carbon neutral city and employ radically advanced changes that will help shape how we as architects operate.

JDS’ exhibition in the Future Urban Zone opened today with 7 exemplar sustainable projects in different regions around the globe highlighting specific responses to individual climates and bold visions which seek to innovate the world of sustainability in Architecture.

JDS participates in the inaugural European Future Energy Forum in Bilbao, Spain. Sponsored by Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s new carbon neutral and energy positive city for 50,000 people, it is one of Europe’s major forums for discussions on climate change and sustainability with world leaders and policy makers alongside private companies and activists debating the future of our planet in areas of renewable energy, construction, transport, development, waste and government policy.

This will be on of the most crucial forums on sustainability and climate change prior to the landmark talks in Copenhagen in December 2009.

JDS are contributing to the Future Urban Zone with 7 exemplar sustainable projects that develop new innovations in sustainability and question and push the traditional benchmarks.  JDS / Andrew Griffin will also speak at the ‘Movers and Shakers’ panel on Thursday morning regarding sustainability and the built environment and how these challenges and opportunities will affect the world of architecture and catalyse its evolution.