Urban area redevelopment in vulnerable neighbourhoods: Unravelling the collaborative process between public and private parties

Cities are seen as important drivers of economic growth and more than ever, today’s cities are the incubators of economic renewal (PBL, 2016). The negative side of this celebrated triumph, however, is becoming more and more visible as well; reflected in an increased division between “good” and “bad” neighbourhoods (Uyterlinde & van der Velden, 2017). Municipal policymakers, housing associations and social professionals have expressed their concerns about increasing concentrations of vulnerable target groups and the negative impact on liveability (Uyterlinde & van der Velden, 2017). Housing stock diversification is considered to be the most appropriate long-term strategy for coping with liveability problems that arise in vulnerable neighbourhoods, since diversification can dilute the problems and strengthens the mutual self-reliance and neighbourhood cohesion (Leidelmeijer et al., 2018). In practice, however, certain barriers to diversifying the housing stock in vulnerable neighbourhoods are identified. These barriers largely relate to the recognition that the force field has fundamentally changed over the past years. Thereby, the determined research goal was “to provide an understanding of how public and private parties effectively cooperate on and manage urban area redevelopment aimed at diversifying the housing stock in vulnerable neighbourhoods”.Architecture, Urbanism and Building Science