The 2015 Eo-Wijers competition was in search of proposals for energy neutrality for the “Stedendriehoek” (city-triangle) Apeldoorn-Deventer-Zutphen in 2030. The winning entry S3H-BTK was developed by the team of BURA (formerly known as marco.broekman), H+N+S, FABRIC, WING, Witteveen+Bos and CE Delft. The project starts from the idea that implementation of measures like CAT (Carbon Added Tax, in Dutch: BTK) could be the engine of a large energy transition.

A competitive and energy neutral region in 2030 is only conceivable if a solid economic force can be organised. S3H-BTK puts the region in a new economic reality in which instead of labour, resources will be taxed. A Carbon Added Tax takes every step of all production processes into account, causing an energy transition in which entire production chains start to organize themselves differently. This has an enormous spatial impact. Regions will immediately have a competitive advantage, if they are able to organise an intelligent deployment of landscape and social capital, close cycles, organise mobility and at same time create an attractive living, working and recreational landscape. The city-triangle of Apeldoorn-Deventer-Zutphen has the right size and scale to develop into a strong circular economy.

The proposal shows the dynamics that a process towards the introduction of the CAT could cause: scaling up as well as scaling down the landscape, reprogramming shopping streets, transformation of outdated business areas, as well as demolition and recycling of agrarian real estate. The region could profile itself in this context as a ‘learning region’ in which by ‘trial and error’ a mosaic of neighbourhoods and cooperation’s could arise, testing sustainable innovations and transformations of buildings and areas.