How can we ensure that Brabant’s villages remain liveable and vibrant?
Brabant Village Strategy Toolbox
Villages are special places that we should cherish. However, the liveability and vitality of villages are under pressure. The ageing population, the migration of young people to the city, the disappearance of amenities and changing housing needs all demand attention. At the same time, challenges are arising around social cohesion, entrepreneurship, greening, sustainable accessibility and preserving village character. These issues are urgent and closely intertwined. Whiles this makes the task complex, it also offers opportunities for smart, integrated solutions. The Brabant Village Strategy Toolbox provides direction and guidance. Two related reports clarify the challenges facing Brabant’s villages and the solutions to them. The first report outlines the most significant challenges facing villages in Brabant, supported by a data-driven analysis. It provides insight into trends, opportunities and vulnerabilities. The second report is interactive and contains the toolbox: a practical toolkit offering solutions in the form of instruments that can be used to help preserve and strengthen liveable and vibrant villages. The toolbox provides inspiration, with a focus on the human scale and the unique qualities of each village, and helps to address various challenges. Alongside an overview of the tools and practical examples, the toolbox contains eight fictional, inspiring storylines. Using eight villages in Brabant, these stories demonstrate how we can work towards the vitality of the village as a whole, starting from a single core challenge.
data
- Location
- Brabantse dorpen / Provincie Noord- Brabant, NL
- Size
- 4.919 km²
- Client
- Regio West-Brabant, Stedelijke Regio Breda-Tilburg, Stedelijke Regio ’s-Hertogenbosch en Metropoolregio Eindhoven
- Discipline
- Urban Design
- Program
- Housing
- Period
- 2024-2025
- Status
- Completed
Brabant Villages
Villages are special places. They are highly valued for their compact character, human scale and strong sense of community, meaning that people know each other and support one another. They are often surrounded by beautiful natural landscapes or architectural green areas. While sharing these generic characteristics, each village has its own distinct character. Each one has a unique identity, history, location and spatial and social structure. Together with cities, this diversity of villages forms a larger whole: the Brabant mosaic of hamlets, small towns, villages and medium-sized and large cities. Cities cannot exist without their villages, and villages cannot survive without their cities. This diversity is essential for a well-functioning, robust and inclusive province. Report 1 of the Brabant Village Strategy provides further clarification of these qualities and their interrelationships, offering clear definitions of liveability and vitality, as well as a data-driven analysis of Brabant’s villages.
] Total independent vitality scores: from low (red) to high (green), with higher scores considered positive
Total connected vitality scores
Total liveability scores
Village-related challenges
Housing stock
Amenities
Economy
Mobility & accessibility
Green and healthy living environment
Safe and social living environment
Village spatial quality
Local authority
The Toolbox: 8 interrelated themes for vital villages
The second interactive report contains the Toolbox, a practical toolkit providing guidance on creating liveable and vital villages. It bundles the complex challenges facing villages and summarises them into eight interrelated themes: housing stock; amenities; the economy; mobility and accessibility; a green and healthy living environment; a safe and social living environment; village spatial quality; and local involvement. This integrated approach is essential because the liveability and vitality of villages are under pressure due to a combination of demographic, economic and social developments, such as an ageing population, smaller households, the migration of young people to cities, digitization and individualisation. These trends lead to increased housing demand, reduced support for amenities, and weakened social cohesion. The Toolbox offers inspiration and guidance by describing tools (solutions) and providing numerous practical examples. Based on Brabant villages, eight inspiring fictional storylines have been developed, demonstrating how all other challenges can be addressed by starting from one key challenge and improving the vitality of a village as a whole. In this way, the toolbox helps villages work towards a liveable
and vibrant future.
Download here the toolbox
