BRAND The Urban Agency

Name: BRAND The Urban Agency
Address: Schiedamse Vest 91-B, Rotterdam, 3012BG, NL
Telephone: +31104333500

Startpagina
Nederland
Rotterdam
BRAND The Urban Agency

Onze steden zijn onze toekomst. Daarom helpen wij organisaties en initiatieven die steden aantrekkelijk, leefbaar en weerbaar maken, succesvol te zijn.

Het communicatiebureau met hart voor de stad. Stedelingen kennen wij als geen ander en we weten ze elke keer weer duurzaam in beweging te brengen met onze campagnes, events en acties. Ons werkveld is breed en divers; van positioneringstrajecten tot activatiecampagnes en van place branding tot events en conferenties. Maar voor wie we ook werken, profit of non-profit, we hebben één ding gemeen: we hebben allemaal hart voor de stad.

02/06/2026

Some of the most inspiring places didn’t start with a masterplan, policy document or major investment.
They started with people.

Residents, makers, entrepreneurs and local changemakers who saw an opportunity, missed something, or simply believed things could be done differently.

Across the Netherlands, more and more communities are taking on challenges around housing, energy, mobility, food and sustainability themselves.

That’s why I’m looking forward to The Power of Community on June 23 at the Keilepand in Rotterdam. The conference is part of Rotterdam Architecture Month and focuses on how communities organise themselves, build local economies, collaborate with governments and market parties, and create long term impact.

The location couldn’t be more fitting. Keilepand and the wider Keilekwartier in Rotterdam’s district have become a leading example of cooperative area development, collective ownership and community driven city making. The conference is organised by the , one of the driving forces behind this movement.
If you’d like to learn more, check out the programme of Rotterdam Architecture Month

Photo: The Food Garden with Keilepand in the background, .van.adrichem

08/05/2026

So cool to see almost 300 Real Estate and Facility Management students at working on a social value case over the next eight weeks!

To kick off the project, we explored culture-led development and the thinking behind my book Heart Head Hands. We talked about value creation, ownership and why successful places are not simply built, but collectively shaped over time. We also looked beyond financial value alone and discussed the social, cultural and long-term impact places can create.

Looking forward to the outcomes and discussions at the final presentations in June.

05/05/2026

Some places prove their value quietly. The Spoorzone in Tilburg is one of them.

Over time, it has grown into a place with real meaning. I first came here in 2017, during Placemaking Week Europe, when one key question was on the table: how do you give early pioneers a lasting role in what follows? Looking at it now, that has been done convincingly.

Fifteen years in, this is still a place in the making. Not shaped by one plan or one party, but by people working together. And there is still plenty of room to join in.

On 19 May, I will be moderating ‘Spoorzone Tilburg: de kracht van samen’ with Bas van der Pol, Ferdinand P.M. Gremmen, Martijn van der Steen, Fahid Minhas and Najiba Abdellaoui.

Want to join? Send me a DM with your email address. The event is in Dutch.

01/05/2026

Why some places just work… and others stay empty.
Five of our favourite places

We often think the job is done when a place is designed and built. In reality, that’s where it starts.
While working on Berlijnplein in Utrecht, we looked for places that truly function. Not the most beautiful ones, but the ones people actually use.

These 5 stood out:
• Kaapelitehdas (Helsinki) Culture + commerce fully intertwined → Liveliness comes from interaction, not design perfection

• De Kantine (Utrecht) Day → night flows into one continuous rhythm → Don’t design functions, design a rhythm

• Centquatre (Paris) People take over the space → Leave room for appropriation

• Southbank Centre (London) Never finished, always evolving → Design a strategy, not an end state

• Bryant Park (New York) Programmed all year round → Programming is infrastructure

Different places, one shared principle: they work as a system.
Not just space, but also: programming, organisation, users and business model.

What we take from this: – Integration beats a mix of functions – Use > design – Ownership sits with users – Diversity needs access (and affordability) – Big places need small, intimate spaces – Authenticity is everything

Strong places aren’t made. They are continuously shaped by the people who use them.

08/04/2026

Retail alone is no longer enough. So what comes next?

More and more high streets and shopping centres are turning to culture. Not as a one off activation, but as a structural layer that brings identity, energy and meaning back into a place.

Amsterdamse Poort is a strong example. Instead of adding more retail, CBRE Investment Management asked a different question: how do we make this a place that matters again, for both the neighbourhood and the city?

Culture became part of the answer. Not temporary, but embedded. Since 2019 I’ve been involved in shaping that process. What it takes:
• equal collaboration with local cultural players • a shared language across sectors • a joint ambition, with commitment over time • a financial model that holds in the long run

The result: a solid cultural cluster, with OSCAM and Foundation Amsterdam Hip Hop Centre as anchors.
Culture led development works. Also in a commercial context.
 Want to explore what culture led development could mean for your place? Send me a message.

22/11/2022

Call for cases Culture-led development

The second case study in the new 'Culture-led Development' series of Gebiedsontwikkeling.nu focuses on Werkspoorkwartier Utrecht. A'creative and circular working landscape' with private initiatives as a major driving force. The article will be published on Gebiedsontwikkeling.nu early 2023.
Which cultural area development will follow? Possibly a development from outside the Netherlands? Suggestions? DM! May as well be a project from within the Dutch borders of course :)

16/11/2022

Go test the future! Do not (only) deploy temporary use to make a place more attractive, but experiment in a purposeful way with new concepts, functions or traffic flows to sustainably improve a place.
‘Placetesting’; Rinske wrote a column about it a while ago. We since been implementing placetesting in several projects in different cities. For the column, see link in bio. Want to know more about placetesting and our projects? We are happy to tell you! Just send us a DM.

10/11/2022

A good place is created collectively. That is why the input of 'neighbourhood experts' is essential, in every project. Just like taking action is much more effective than just thinking, talking and planning. In Amsterdamse Poort, place branding, placemaking and participation come together seamlessly in placetesting.
Although we developed a vision and strategy for placemaking and placetesting for this location, we left the implementation to South-East Amsterdam itself. Like the cooperation with of Eleven, who started his ‘Streets of Propects’ in a partly unoccupied area of the shopping mall.

Want to know more? See link in bio

08/11/2022

Jubilee! Last week marked the 5th year in a row that Rinske held the guest lecture ‘Co-creating Placebrands’ for the students of the City Branding Minor of Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences / Willem de Kooning Academy.
Highlight of each year is the discussion with students about the value of place branding, the nonsense of slogans and the importance of involving the local community in creating the placebrand.

Adres

Schiedamse Vest 91-B
Rotterdam
3012BG

Telefoon

+31104333500

Website

http://www.brandurbanagency.com/

Meldingen

Wees de eerste die het weet en laat ons u een e-mail sturen wanneer BRAND The Urban Agency nieuws en promoties plaatst. Uw e-mailadres wordt niet voor andere doeleinden gebruikt en u kunt zich op elk gewenst moment afmelden.