On 4th March, ULI Netherlands hosted a lunch session for members and guests with Arthesia CEO Thomas Sevcik. Arthesia is an applied communication think-tank that insures companies, organisations and regions against ‘sameness’ using atypical solutions. Sevcik is the mind behind diverse projects such as Volkswagen’s ‘Autostadt’ corporate theme world in Wolfsburg.

Looking at digital urbanity and the real estate world, the session covered how the rise of social media/internet re-defines proximity and frequency for physical projects and how this could trigger new mixed-use developments with lots of new surprising functions and content.

Sevcik discussed the idea of transition from the virtual world being an extension of the physical world, to the opposite, where virtual and digital becomes the primary function and how this affects the value and uses of property. Examples of how these transitions in urban behaviour are already happening were discussed, including Rotterdam Market Hall – a residential development in Rotterdam comprising 228 apartments forming a tunnel over the market hall, a building in Miami used for a variety uses, from car parking, events, retail and storage, and a car manufacturing plant in the corner of park in the centre of Dresden.

The session concluded with a question-and-answer session with Mr. Sevcik.