Creatief Arnhem and Arnhem City Council are launching PONT Lifeport: one of the regional public design practices within PONT Regionaal. Over the coming months, we will be exploring how we can embed the design-led approach more firmly within the municipality of Arnhem and, more broadly, in the Lifeport–region.
The national PONT programme will come to an end in its current form at the end of 2026, but the movement will continue. In recent years, a great deal of knowledge and experience has been built up on how designers and public sector professionals can work together to address societal issues.
With PONT Regional Research is now underway into how this knowledge and experience can be secured and further developed at a regional level. The ambition is to move from one-off projects and isolated practices towards a stronger regional foundation for design-led working.
PONT Lifeport: building on what already exists
With PONTLifeport, the Lifeport Arnhem-Nijmegen Region is one of three regions embarking on this initiative, alongside Utrecht and North Groningen, Drenthe and Fryslân. Discussions are also underway in Brabant regarding a regional approach.
In Arnhem and the wider region, we are not starting from scratch in this regard. The design-led approach is already being used in an increasing number of places to tackle societal challenges.
Within Creative xEnergy, designers are working alongside stakeholders from the energy sector on issues including grid congestion and behavioural patterns. Withinthe municipality of Arnhem,the design-led approach is being applied to address heat stress.Through‘ImmersiveExperiences’, we are exploring how design and new technology can contribute to societal transitions. And within‘Human Capital’, we are applying the design-led approach to address issues relating to the labour market and the future of work.
This is leading to an ever-increasing body of practical knowledge and experience. The next question is how we can better connect these practices, learn from them and organise the design-based approach in a more structured way.
Simone van Bennekom, Creatief Arnhem:
“In Arnhem and the wider region, we are seeing more and more places where a design-led approach really makes a difference. The next step is not to allow these practices to exist in isolation, but to bring the knowledge and experience together and develop them further. With PONT Lifeport “We want to build a regional foundation from which we can work in an increasingly design-led way to tackle societal challenges.”
From a bottom-up, practical approach to a more structured way of working
Within the municipality of Arnhem, too, the design-led approach is increasingly taking root in practice. In various settings, staff are discovering how this way of working can help tackle complex issues.
Over the coming months, we will therefore be examining not only which practices already exist, but above all what is needed to further strengthen this movement and organise it in a more structured way.
In doing so, we can learn from experiences already gained elsewhere. For example, Alliander It has previously undertaken a similar development programme to embed the design-led approach more firmly within the organisation.
Paul Maassen, Arnhem City Council:
“Within the municipality of Arnhem, we are seeing a bottom-up, design-led approach being adopted in more and more places. That is a positive development. At the same time, we also recognise that, at a certain point, it helps to provide more structured support for and organisation of such a movement. At Alliander “We have previously undertaken a similar initiative. It is interesting to draw on the lessons learnt from that and to explore which aspects might work within our own organisation and the region.”
Practitioners get to work
Simone van Bennekom of Creatief Arnhem is leading the development of PONT Lifeport at an administrative and strategic level, together with Paul Maassen and Richard Kaper from Arnhem City Council. Together, they are working on the positioning and regional anchoring of PONT Lifeport, as well as on establishing links with relevant partners in the region.
Tom Kortbeek and Jorik Weustink will take on the role of project leaders.
Over the next six months, they will conduct practical research into what is needed to strengthen and structurally organise the design-based approach within the municipality of Arnhem and more broadly across the region.
Each brings their own experience to the table. Tom previously completeda similar programmeatAlliander and is applying the knowledge and lessons learnt from that experience. Jorik has completed several programmesat PONT and is already working within Arnhem City Council itself using the design-based approach to address the issue of heat stress.
In this way, we link the knowledge built up within PONT to the experience already gained within organisations and projects in our own region.
What are we going to be doing over the coming months?
We will be using the coming months as a pilot phase. We will bring together existing practices and knowledge and investigate what is needed to further strengthen the design-led approach.
In doing so, we look at, amongst other things:
- what design practices already exist within Arnhem and the wider region;
- what public sector professionals and designers need to work together effectively;
- how we can share knowledge and experience across projects and organisations;
- how we can introduce more people and organisations to the design-led approach;
- what role learning and professional development can play in this;
- and what is needed to further organise and safeguard this at a regional level from 2027 onwards.
This is not about setting up a single new organisation. Rather, we want to build on what already exists and explore who, in various roles, can take responsibility for the further development of public design practice in the region.
From individual practices to a regional design practice
PONT Lifeport thus offers an opportunity to take the next step.
Moving from a project-based approach within individual projects to learningacross projects.
From a handful of pioneers to a wider range of public sector professionals and designers who can work with it.
And it moves away from isolated practices towards a regional framework in which knowledge, people and societal challenges are interconnected.
In the coming months, we will continue to work together to build a public design practice that suits Arnhem and the Lifeport region and that can continue to grow even after the national PONT programme has ended.
PONT Lifeport
Fancy getting involved?
We are building PONT Lifeport together with the region. Over the coming period, we will therefore be engaging in dialogue with local authorities, the provincial government, designers, educational and research institutions, and other regional partners who are already working with the design-led approach or wish to do more with it.
Are you working on social challenges in the Lifeport region and would you like to contribute ideas or get involved? If so, please contact Creative Arnhem.
