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DakPark is a man-made park high above the rooftops in the Rotterdam neighbourhood Delfshaven. It is 1200 metres long and 85 metres wide. This is the largest public roof park in Europe and has spectacular 360-degree views of the ports and high-rise buildings. There is always something to see and experience at the Dakpark. You can picnic, barbecue, walk or sunbathe. For children, there is a playground and a water staircase to splash in.

The park also has several beautiful (vegetable) gardens. The sheep of city shepherd Martin Oosthoek graze in the park. If the wind blows, you can retreat to the Warmth Room, a walled garden with Mediterranean plants. In the summer, there is often a kiosk selling home-made refreshments, and all kinds of activities take place, from yoga to bootcamp.

People who lived there at that time started initiating debates related to this project. They wanted this area to become a park because the area surround has a big density of living and therefore people wanted to have some green area. People living next to the park are involved in to life of this park working together with Rotterdam municipality.

This park is uniquely located. It is separating the harbor from the living area. Because of the park, the neighbourhood around are getting more economical value and benefits since the neighbourhood itself is getting more appealing.

A nature park and urban park combined. A place where we can enjoy urban life and new technologies, but also enjoy the beautiful nature, which we need

The greenhouse in the park there, we can perhaps make it self-sufficient

Internet booths, because in 2050 everything will be digitized

A place where you can sit more and enjoy nature

A place where children can play in and with nature, to give the polluted land some fresh air and green.

Thinking out of a plant/flower persona. What do plants want and need?

What is needed for the city? Think of the function, What is natural?

What do the flowers need? And what's the function of the flower?

We as designers have to change the park. Whats the role of the flower in 2050, the combination is very interesting.

Our flower park inspiration

In recent years, biodiversity has been in sharp decline. Animal, but also plant populations are decreasing. We actually want to focus on protecting part of this biodiversity. And especially focused on bees.
Bees do not only provide honey. By collecting pollen all the time, they ensure the pollination of flowers and plants. Pollination enables the flowers and plants to reproduce and keeps them growing. The bee is not only important for making honey, but for our entire natural environment. Plants provide part of the food that people eat and the oxygen that they breathe. Plants not only use carbon dioxide, they also act as carbon sinks. Carbon sinks are extremely useful for humans.

By protecting the bees, we also protect the flowers and plants at the same time, since bees live off flowers. So there will be an extra green area in this small part of Rotterdam.
The park's function will be mainly to protect the bees. The park is located on the roofs of various companies, so it will not take up any more space in the city, which will make it possible to build houses for the growing population. However, the houses built around the park may have to be powered by green energy. The park is already in a fairly industrial area, so to 'give away' even more emissions is a waste. If we build houses with green energy around it and possibly make the park self-sufficient, we create a kind of green zone in Rotterdam.

answer together: What do flowers do? What is their function, also looking to the future in 2050?

Questions for municipality:

-what are those gardens and do they have to stay in the park?
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The climate is changing and so is the weather. What kind of weather can we expect in NL in 2050?
The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute has developed climate models for this purpose, which produce new results every 6-8 years. Meteorologist Raymond Klaassen explains that global warming is only increasing and that it is happening faster and faster. The outcome of this will be that the temperature will rise. The summer will become drier and the other three seasons wetter, with a lot of extreme weather.

If we were to compare the weather forecasts with a current climate somewhere in the world, it would be Bordeaux, where it is much warmer, but where the weather is also much more extreme.

For agriculture, the warming is actually very beneficial, there will be a longer growing season and higher co2 values will increase agricultural yields.

In the current climate, an average of 3-6 tropical days occur annually in the Utrecht region. Around 2050, according to the highest scenario, this will increase to about 9-15 days a year.

So in a warmer world the weather will be more extreme. Heavy precipitation leads to local flooding and damage to crops. Longer periods of drought endanger ecosystems that are highly dependent on precipitation.

Heat in the city:
The temperature in an urban area is on average higher than in a non-urban environment. At night this difference is greatest and the difference between the city and its surroundings can be as much as 5 degrees Celsius:
- for example, dark materials absorb more sunlight
- cooling by radiation is lower than in rural areas
- on average, wind speeds are lower in cities than outside, which means that the heat remains longer.

Because urbanisation will increase further, KNML expects urban heat to be a bigger problem in 2050 than it is now. This emerges from research by TNO, Wageningen UR and KNMI based on climate scenarios.