In the city of Goes in the Netherlands, the transformation of the City Hall area into a Green Hub is being shaped not by planners alone — but by the people who use the space every day. As part of the Interreg North-West Europe Cool Neighbourhoods project, the municipality has placed citizen engagement at the heart of the redesign process, ensuring that local voices directly inform the future of this important public square.
What was once a grey, heat-stressed area is now becoming a co-created urban landscape, where decisions around shade, seating, biodiversity, and layout are guided by community insights and lived experience.
Residents as Designers: A Shared Vision for the City Hall Green Hub
The city of Goes launched a series of co-design sessions and community dialogues, inviting residents, local associations, youth groups, and daily users of the City Hall grounds to contribute ideas. These interactive sessions allowed citizens to:
- explore design concepts
- express needs related to comfort, safety, and accessibility
- share experiences of heat stress in the City Hall square
- refine planting and shading preferences
- identify priorities for biodiversity and inclusive use
The outcome is a transformation grounded in local values and real-world needs, not assumptions.
Through the engagement sessions, citizens highlighted several priorities that now guide the final design:
🌳 More natural shade
Participants voiced the need for cooling. This has led to the inclusion of significant tree planting, pergolas, and shaded seating.
🌼 A biodiverse garden landscape
Residents wanted more nature — not ornamental greenery, but ecological planting that supports wildlife and seasonal colour.
🪑 Spaces for meeting and resting
Community members emphasised the need for places to sit, gather, talk, and pause in comfort.
💧 Climate-resilient surfaces and planting
Citizens supported the integration of infiltration zones and permeable surfaces to manage rainfall and reduce heat retention.
♿ A welcoming, inclusive space
People called for a design that is accessible for all ages and abilities.
This collaborative approach ensures the new Green Hub is designed with the community, not just for it.
Strengthening Long-Term Community Ownership
By involving residents from the beginning, Goes is establishing long-term ownership of the space. When people help design a place, they feel connected to it — which supports:
- regular use
- community care and stewardship
- ongoing feedback
- pride in the local environment
This reflects a central Cool Neighbourhoods
principle:
Climate resilience must be socially supported, and not only technically
implemented.
A Model for Cities Across Interreg NWE
Goes demonstrates that co-creation is not an optional add-on — it is a powerful tool for delivering effective and inclusive climate adaptation. Municipalities across the Interreg NWE region can learn from the Goes approach:
The picture demonstrates Co-Creation in action in Goes, Netherlands
- co-design supports better decision-making
- residents provide insights no model can replicate
- inclusive planning builds trust
- community-shaped solutions gain long-term legitimacy
- nature-based interventions become part of everyday life
The City Hall Green Hub is now part of the wider Grey to Green series, showcasing how nine Cool Neighbourhoods pilots are transforming public spaces through shared knowledge and citizen participation.
A Shared Achievement for the City of Goes
The Green Hub around Goes City Hall is more than a redesign — it is an example of how cities can build resilient, biodiverse, and more liveable neighbourhoods by working directly with their communities.
Image: Artists impression of the Green Hub, City Hall, Goes, Netherlands.
👏 Congratulations to the residents of Goes, the Gemeente Goes team, and all Cool Neighbourhoods partners for delivering a co-created vision of a cooler, greener future.