MOES in Cartesius Utrecht-Example of building a healthy community
Last Friday the residents of Solo and Track in Cartesius Utrecht opened MOES with temporary vegetable garden boxes, a real greenhouse in a mini Cartesius Park. Residents could take a vegetable gardening course beforehand through Utrecht Natuurlijk. MOES is a place of meeting, where the new residents in Cartesius are busy growing fresh vegetables and herbs. The first cultivation has already taken place and the healthy recipes are well shared among themselves. In the past year, the grant from the ZonMw project “Building a Healthy Community” made this initiative possible.
From left to right residents Aukjes Jansen, Rowina Lammens, Heleen Sanders, Sander Prins, Marja van Reijn (MRP), Delilah Sarmo (Municipality of Utrecht), Inès Youssef (GGD Regio Utrecht)
And even though the first residents are living in between all the construction work in the new Cartesius Utrecht urban district, they are showing that a healthy and sustainable living environment can already be achieved even in the temporary. For the future residents of phase 2, who will move into the more than 650 new homes by the middle of next year, this is already something to look forward to.
Through the close cooperation and commitment of all partners in the Cartesius Covenant “Building a Healthy Neighborhood,” the first ZonMw project was successfully completed. The results were presented on June 19 and are now available as inspiration for other interested parties in building new neighborhoods. An important lesson learned is that temporary facilities and building a healthy community must be secured from the beginning and financial resources set aside. Download here the latest version of Stones don't make a neighborhood Lessons learned to achieve social new neighborhoods by Martin Chaigneau in collaboration with Cartesius Utrecht, Municipality of Utrecht, GGD Regio Utrecht, YOU, Dock, Sport Utrecht, IDKG. Read more about the research and projects of Covenant Building a Healthy Neighborhood here.
