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Places where people and nature thrive

Building The New is a growing ecosystem for regenerative development, helping neighborhoods co-create real plans, powered by participatory culture and AI‑supported governance, from story to build.

About

Building The New is becoming an ecosystem for regenerative urban and social development. We connect residents, creatives, institutions, and impact capital to help neighborhoods co-create real plans and then turn those decisions into biobased, nature‑inclusive realities.

It began with a simple question: what if development could leave places better than we found them? That question shaped Common Woods: 56 timber homes at the forest edge of Amersfoort, built through tension, trust, and collaboration. There we learned that ecology, ownership, and community can reinforce one another when governance is designed.

At the heart of this work sits The Building in Common Woods: our home and studio. It’s where we prototype the Common Grounds Operating System, participatory tools + AI‑supported governance that turns tension into trusted decisions. As our pilots evolve, the OS evolves with them, place by place.

Less Harm _ More Good

WHAT WE DO

We catalyze regenerative development by connecting ideas, teams, capital, and place.

Through lighthouse pilots, we build the Operating System that turns tension into trusted decisions, grounded in bioregional ecology, community ownership, and shared value.

As an open ecosystem, we share tools, playbooks, and momentum with partners. We don’t just imagine the future. We build it, place by place.

We catalyze regenerative development by connecting ideas, teams, capital, and place.

Through lighthouse pilots, we build the Operating System that turns tension into trusted decisions, grounded in bioregional ecology, community ownership, and shared value.

As an open ecosystem, we share tools, playbooks, and momentum with partners. We don’t just imagine the future. We build it, place by place.

We are a growing Ecosystem

Inviting governments, creatives, and impact investors to shape the next generation of neighborhood development. Together, we build places and systems, where life can thrive again.

WELCOME

Seeds

At Building The New, innovation grows from real places. Each pilot starts as a seed. Rooted in community, nourished by culture, and tested in real daily governance. When a seed proves its value, it becomes a tool, a service, or a venture others can adopt. We scale not by centralizing, but by sharing patterns and planting living ideas that regenerate the world around them.

Amplifying regenerative culture through story, ritual and imagination. Studio SUE designs immersive experiences that help our neighbors feel and shape futures together.

Urban development rooted in ecology, shaped by community, and guided by purpose. We translate shared stories into real plans: bioregional, feasible, and ready to build.

We build what communities decide. Boom Builds turns regenerative plans into biobased realities: with wood, earth, and local hands.

Amplifying regenerative culture through story, ritual and imagination. Studio SUE designs immersive experiences that help our neighbors feel and shape futures together.

Urban development rooted in ecology, shaped by community, and guided by purpose. We translate shared stories into real plans: bioregional, feasible, and ready to build.

We build what communities decide. Boom Builds turns regenerative plans into biobased realities: with wood, earth, and local hands.

INITIATIONS

Projects and bold experiments in living, building, and belonging. Blending participatory culture, regenerative design, biobased construction, and CG-OS governance.

01/04

COMMON WOODS

A regenerative neighbourhood of 56 timber homes. Our lighthouse at the forest edge. Common Woods combines nature-inclusive design, shared space, and community ownership, supported by participatory rituals and AI-assisted governance.

the building

the building is where Building the New comes together; a home base for reflection, collaboration, and creation. Set at the forest’s edge of Common Woods, it serves as both a home and retreat B&B, open to guests, teams, and makers who seek focus and inspiration.

COMMON GROUNDS ALMERE OOSTERWOLD

A living lab for sustainable housing, urban farming, and circular construction. Common Grounds Almere tests how placemaking and local production can build self-sustaining communities for the future.

CGOS - COMMON CIRCLES

A collaborative governance system linking all projects, where communities, partners and places turn tension into trusted decisions, powered by tools + AI.

Central Region, Ghana

Bioregional Learning Lab for youth-led regeneration and cultural repair in Abandze, Ghana. Feeding back into our key pilots in the Netherlands.

THE COMMON CAFE

A neighbourhood living room in Common Woods: coffee as a social catalyst, not an end. A ‘third place’ for co-working, shared meals, and small programs, designed as a replicable blueprint.

Partners

GO BACK HOME

Contact

EMAIL

info@buildingthenew.nl
ADRES

Netherlands - Ghana

Joining ecosystem

Ecosystem expanding. Each new pilot strengthens the next, creating a living cycle of shared value, collective learning, and regenerative growth. We invite governments, investors, and creators to join. Whether you want to explore a pilot, adopt CG-OS tools, or co-build new models for housing and belonging. If you’re curious or ready to collaborate, reach out. We’d love to connect, perhaps over a (virtual) cup of tea.

Seeds

STUDIO SUE

Studio SUE is the cultural seat of Building The New. We create theatre, art, film and digital stories that make participation tangible, so planning becomes something people can feel.

Where conventional development starts with spreadsheets and renders, we begin with emotion, memory and place. Through rituals, workshops and playful formats (often with children and play) residents become co-authors of their neighbourhood, shaping shared meaning before shaping space.

We harvest stories, values and fears, and translate them into clear inputs for design and governance. In practice, Studio SUE feeds the CG-OS: culture becomes structured signals and collective imagination becomes shared direction.

Rooted in art and shared meaning, we build trust and belonging: the invisible infrastructure of regenerative places.

VISIT WEBSITE

STUDIO SUE

Seeds

Holistic Urbanism

Holistic Urbanism is BTN’s development and whole-systems design practice. We guide projects from first question to built reality, integrating bioregional ecology, social architecture, legal structure, and participatory governance.

We work across the full arc: site strategy, scenario building, co-creation, feasibility & finance, planning, and activation. We translate tension and complexity into clear mandates, trusted decisions, and executable plans.

We explore models that keep value in place: community land trusts, shared ownership, and modular biobased systems. Using CG-OS tooling, we make collaboration transparent, so residents, professionals and institutions share responsibility without chaos.

Each pilot is a regenerative prototype: not only homes, but belonging, wellbeing, and a resilient local economy: built to meet policy goals while caring for land & people.

VISIT WEBSITE

Holistic Urbanism

Seeds

BOOM

Boom Builds is BTN’s construction seat, translating shared vision into built form through regenerative materials and local craftsmanship. We work at the edge of biobased building systems and digital tooling, so delivery can be fast, circular, and high quality. Built to learn: build faster next run.

We specialize in timber and other biobased architectures that are affordable, adaptable, and beautiful. Our systems support rapid assembly, disassembly, and reuse while honoring place, ecology, and community needs.

More than a builder, Boom Builds activates local production ecosystems: stewards, fabricators, makers and builders who can earn, learn, and co-own parts of what they help create. Value doesn’t leak; it circulates within the commons, strengthening the bioregional economy.

VISIT WEBSITE

BOOM

LIGHTHOUSE PROJECT

COMMON WOODS

PHASE

DELIVERED

STATUS

INHABITED

A regenerative neighbourhood of 56 timber homes; our first completed project and living proof that urban development can be ecological, social, and scalable.

Built from wood and other renewable materials, Common Woods features shared green spaces, a community café opening up, and a yet to be build makerspace; that foster collaboration and connection.

The central land is held collectively, while a greywater system with a helophyte filter reduces potable water use by around 40% (when in use, awaiting approvement by regulations). Residents co-manage the gardens, share tools, and organise local activities.

DREAM PROJECT

the building

PHASE

BUILD

STATUS

INTERIOR FINISH

At the edge of the forest in Amersfoort stands The Building: a retreat villa, creative studio, and meeting place for reflection and collaboration.

Born from Common Woods, it is our physical anchor and home base.

With six rooms, a shared kitchen, living room, studio, spa, permaculture garden, mountainbike routes and ceremonial space, it will be host to leadership programs, creative residencies and community gatherings.

It’s comfort with purpose: a place to rest, to listen, and to turn tension into trusted decisions. Opening her doors in May 2026.

EXPECTED IN 2027

COMMON GROUNDS ALMERE OOSTERWOLD

PHASE

EXPECTED

STATUS

PILOT

A living lab In Almere Oosterwold for sustainable housing, urban farming, and inclusive community-forming.
Here, circular construction, temporary makerspaces, and participatory planning come together to explore how a self-sufficient neighbourhood can grow and function in practice.
It’s a blueprint for bioregional transformation, re-imagining housing development. Building on lessons learned in Common Woods.

LAUNCHING 2026

COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE

PHASE

PILOT

STATUS

IN DEVELOPMENT

CGOS is the connective tissue between our projects: a shared grammar for participation, roles, decisions and collective memory. So places can learn without losing their culture.

On the surface: circles with mandates and a transparent log of proposals, decisions and commitments. Under the hood: the Cognitive Gateway, an AI-assisted filter that structures incoming messages, scores tension, and routes items to the right steward (human-in-the-loop).

It doesn’t replace governance; it reduces noise so humans decide with clarity, with an audit trail.

Tension is treated as data: the system helps de-escalate, surface the real need, and translate disagreement into workable next steps.

Built by our three seeds: Studio SUE (culture), Holistic Urbanism (governance) and Boom (realisation) CGOS can scale regionally without extracting value from the place.

CONCEPT IN PROGRESS

Central region, Abandze, Ghana

PHASE

STARTING

STATUS

IN PROGRESS

In Abandze, Ghana, we co-create with local communities and youth. Not a Dutch export, but a listening practice in a place where social fabric still shapes daily life. It links diaspora memory to coastal resilience.

Inspired by Anansi, children gather stories, map meaningful locations, and prototype futures through play, art and making. This supports cultural repair and bioregional regeneration.

This feeds back into our pilots in the Netherlands, so our tools strengthen relationships, not replace them.

OPENING 2026

PHASE

BUILD

STATUS

IN PROGRESS

Opening in 2026, Common Café (“The Organized Chaos”) is a welcoming ‘third place’ inside Common Woods.

Between home and work. It’s not a classic commercial café: coffee is a means to bring people together. Horeca is the economic base; community is the soul. By day: breakfast, coffee, lunch, co-working and informal drop-ins. By evening: a simple ‘aanschuiftafel’ and small gatherings.

As the front door for Common Circles, it helps turn everyday conversations into shared projects and trusted decisions. Year 1 is a serious learn-by-doing transit year: we test what works, co-create programming with residents and local initiatives. Host workshops, neighbourhood meetings, a Repair Café, reading nights and small cultural events.

Building a replicable blueprint for future Common Grounds projects.