The Hague houses the national government of the Netherlands, the international court of justice, and the head offices of over 130 international organisations and companies, among which Eurojust, Europol, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Shell, AEGON, and KPN. The Hague is the United Nation’s second city after New York. The Hague actively promotes public and private collaborations and innovations in the field of safety and sustainability. It has set up many innovation projects, including sustainable housing and energy-neutral neighbourhoods, within the municipal area.
Main roles in PROFICIENT
As a local government, the Municipality of The Hague will mainly contribute to WP7 and WP8, especially based on the real experience, existing and future plans of the demonstration case. The municipality of The Hague will oversee the progress of demonstration case within its region, mobilise the stakeholders, and host the local Community of Practice related to the refurbishment projects.
The Municipality of The Hague will also participate in research to provide expert opinions reflecting its roles in the development of housing policies, financial and regulatory frameworks for sustainability, which are addressed in WP1, WP2, WP3, WP4, and WP5.
Key persons involved
Mr. Henk Bakker (1955) is the head of the team ‘Building Physics and Sustainable Buildings’. He is responsible for the building physics quality of sustainable building developments in The Hague. He studied civil engineering at the Technical College in Dordrecht and graduated in 1978. He has 30 years of experience in building physics and over 20 years as an advisor sustainable building. Since 1990 one of his main tasks has been the policy development on sustainable building for the municipality. He has been involved in the Geothermal Project in The Hague Southwest since 2005.
Mr. Laurens Mantel (1959) has been working for 25 years in various positions at the municipality of The Hague. He has been dealing with informing the residents in the urban renewal areas, relocation of residents, and realization of a number of comprehensive district plans. Since 2001 he has been working as the project leader of various building development projects, such as the restructuring of The Hague Southwest, the inner-city housing projects, the realization of shopping centres and business parks, and the refurbishment of public spaces. Currently he is the project leader of the development of self-organised housing at Erasmusveld, which serves as a demonstration case for PROFICIENT. Laurens graduated in 1983 from the Social Works & Services Academy in The Hague.
Mr. Hans Sparreboom (1966) is Program Manager at the Municipality of The Hague and responsible for the conceptualizing, marketing en sales of the smallscale house-plots and buildings in The Hague. The essential target is to persuade financiers to invest in the development of the city. The project is named as ‘Kleinschalig Opdrachtgeverschap’. Hans studied building engineering at the Technical College in Rijswijk. Since he started his career he has worked for more than 23 years for the Municipality of The Hague. During that time he has mostly worked as a projectmanager for several locations en area’s in the city.