Credit: Photo by Koos Breukel
All these ideas, we believe, are going to generate much better communication and liveliness in the community.
– Ben van Berkel, co-founder and partner at UNStudio

Architectural technology company UNSense, a division of UNStudio, have announced details of the first stage of their Brainport District project – a "feasibility study" launched to investigate the factors that contribute to residential wellness.

Set to take place in the Netherlands, within the Brandevoort district of Eindhoven, the scheme, which is being billed as a "living lab" and a "responsive urban ambition" will specifically examine alternative economic models that put the data of members of the community into their own hands, instead of into the hands of technocratic companies.

According to UNSense, residents will be encouraged to build a system of exchange based on their own personal data, trading it for a number of services, including transport, energy, food, and merchandise production and distribution.

Ultimately, the architects' findings will serve to inform UNStudio's Brainport master plan, helping them to design an adaptive neighbourhood of 100 affordable and accessible residences. The firm will then build 1,500 homes, 300 of which will be social houses.

"The desired outcome is to increase the quality of life for the inhabitants and self-sufficiency of the community as a whole, by managing the basic facilities through technological innovations," UNSense said in a statement.

"In this way," they added, "we aim to create a neighbourhood that is healthy, on physical, social, and environmental levels."

First teased in July 2018, Brainport, which is being developed in cooperation with the University of Tilburg, is scheduled to be completed in 2020.