Over the past two years, the partners of the New European Bauhaus lighthouse project Desire - Designing the Irresistible Circular Society, have been experimenting with building ecosystems to engage citizens in the green transition within their local communities. 

At the Desire conference on 10 September in Copenhagen, Diana Krabbendam from The Beach discussed the lessons learned from the Amsterdam demo site Wildemanbuurt with Helene Eiliott from the NEB-Star New European Bauhaus project in Stavanger, Norway. 

Experience shows that it can be difficult for citizens to truly believe that they will have a real influence on the development of their neighborhood. Therefore, it is important to build trust among all stakeholders. And it can take time. - In Amsterdam, they have, among other things, established "Design and Do groups" to engage people.

Additionally, Peter Andreas Sattrup, Head of Green Transition at NCC, shared his insights on how a large construction company like NCC can draw inspiration from the New European Bauhaus in their building projects.

The moderator was Michael Booth. 

Desire is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

How do we make the green transition acceptable, desirable and irresistible for both young people, adults and the elderly? Art could perhaps be part of the answer.

On a construction site in the Copenhagen suburb of Herlev a strange transparent bulb is home to garden care takers, who interpret a being of place - and welcome the citizens of the area to a dialogue about their community, nature and the transformation of their environment. The site is one of eight light house demonstrators of the EU-wide Desire project, Desire an Irresistible Circular Society, which itself is part of a larger New European Bauhaus initiative. 

This is the Desire Academy podcast series, where Desire members, staff and academics share knowledge about the Desire sites around Europe - and how to transform our society to be more circular and irresistible. 

In this very first episode is the woman at the core of the garden care takers in Herlev and utilizer of the being of place idea, Madeleine Kate McGowan of the NXT communication and innovation bureau.