Innovation Clubhouse

The Innovation Clubhouse will be built in Amsterdam. The clubhouse and its grounds will function as a living lab, a place for developing, testing and implementing innovations on various themes, such as climate change, energy & heat, logistics & mobility, education & learning, social inclusion, circular building, health & movement and of course, the sport itself.

The project's experimental nature allows an integrated design to address various neighbourhood challenges. The Innovation Clubhouse is an opportunity to build community in the neighbourhood, work toward a circular economy and take responsibility for the environment. The building will be made of biobased and circular materials based on a modular and easily adaptable design. The spaces and infill can be easily adjusted as activities change. A place that enables improvement in all levels of society and teaches us how to live together - now and in the future.

Researchers from TU Delft conduct research from AMS Institute, the knowledge institute for metropolitan issues in Amsterdam, particularly in the areas of sustainability, circular building, energy conservation and mobility. For example, they focus on the questions of how sports clubs can contribute to energy and heat production for the neighbourhood, how sports fields can be used as water buffers during major rainfall, and how the city's logistics can be improved by using mostly unused parking spaces as hubs for partial transport. It also looks at how sports clubs can organise their offerings in a smarter way to better connect with unattached athletes, high school students and other target groups who currently often drop out of sports clubs.

Innovation Clubhouse aims not only to get more people moving and promote technological innovations but also to play a major role as a social point in the neighbourhood. For example, integrating neighbourhood functions, such as homework classes or a library branch, into the clubhouse can help improve social ties to the neighbourhood. Moreover, because residents from all walks of life can be found at sports parks with some regularity, the Innovation Clubhouse can be an accessible and low-threshold first step to help people with financial problems, access to employment or low literacy.

TU Delft, KNVB and the City of Amsterdam have developed the Innovation Clubhouse concept in collaboration with AMS Institute, Sportinnovator, Triple Double and Space&Matter. In the upcoming period, the collaboration will broaden its scope by involving additional stakeholders to start the design and construction of the clubhouse in 2024. By 2025, the Innovation Clubhouse is set to unveil its presence in Amsterdam. Successful examples developed in the Innovation Clubhouse can be adopted by other clubs in the Netherlands.