IEWAN 'Initiative Group Ecological Living Nijmegen' consists of 24 social housing units, 44 adults and 9 children. On the lushly vegetated facade hangs a banner: IT IS POSSIBLE! IEWAN is social housing, sustainable, affordable, diverse, and ecological. How did they do that: Built according to their own ideas, from straw, clay and wood, and without their own money. FGA spoke with Hanneke Beld, one of the initiators.
When FGA started their project last summer with the question “how do we want to live?” a visit to IEWAN was at the top of the wish list. IEWAN is the first straw district in the Netherlands, developed by the residents, together with housing association Talis, and with WBVG as an intermediary. WBVG, Housing Association Gelderland, emerged from the squatters' movement of the 80s. They play an important role in almost all self-build initiatives in the east of the country. In Gelderland there are already around 100 COOPS and more initiatives are being added all the time. The BAD foundation and the Poortgebouw in Rotterdam have also been helped by WBVG, two projects with a much longer duration than usual in Rotterdam.
Hanneke Beld, together with Mare Nynke Zijlstra, founded Bureau Viertel, they guide resident groups and initiatives for ecological communal living in the social rental sector. There should be many more social rental homes and COOPS and together we should continue to appeal to the corporations on their core task, says Hanneke. The corporations have land and money, but a group of people has a lot to offer that the corporation does not have: a plan, good ideas and a community!
