EVA Lanxmeer


EVA lanxmeer is the name of an ecological neighbourhood built from 1994 to 2009 in the Dutch town of Culemborg in the Netherlands. It is an environmentally friendly housing development.
It was initiated by Marleen Kaptein, who was looking for a more sustainable way of building housing in urban areas. The project was a strong partnership between future inhabitants and the city of Culemborg, consultants and other people.
It incorporates many of the principles of high environmental quality and eco-towns, but its principal originality is the promotion of the constant participation of the inhabitants. Indeed, this neighbourhood was designed and conducted with representatives of future residents in a creative process, and is often regarded as a model in several areas. It has therefore become an international reference, regularly visited by architects, urbans planners, developers, futurists or groups interested in sustainability, from European countries, and sometimes the United States, Japan, etc..

Creation of the project

In 1990, believed that creating neighbourhoods with the inhabitants was both possible and necessary.
She gathered a group of people motivated to create the project. She thought that a critical threshold
of 200 to 400 houses must be reached. To do it, they needed land of more than 20ha.
After that she created a foundation called the International Forum Mann and foundation structures to
promote organic architecture and she gathered a group of friends which included various
scientists and university intellectuals with the goal of creating a city or a district they
would dream to live in.

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