About us

Favas.net (Fava) is a non-profit association of independent professionals committed to spatial solutions and social empowerment. The Fava-association is founded in 2009 and managed by Fava’s lead partner RVDB Urban Planning (Dr. Rob van der Bijl MSc Architecture and Urban Planning). Our name is derived from the famous fava bean, on the human menu for thousands of years. In etymologic sense the name ‘fava’ is historically close to the name ‘Favela’. And sure, it has been no coincidence that the foundation of Favas.net was inspired by our experiences with the Favelas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that are named by our bean. Favas.net uses biomimicry to mimic natural growth in urban planning.

Timeline

January 2021 – RVDB Urban Planning becomes lead partner Favas.net

December 2019 – Favas.net 10th anniversary celebration

June 2018 – Launch of the new, improved and enlarged website

July 2016 – SAFE PLACES (Veiligwonen.nl) incorporated in Favas.net

April 2013 – Start of the multiple Rotterdam project (our high priority ever since)

October 2010 – ‘The City is Home’ released by Favas.net

January 2010 – Preparation of the first cases and projects

December 2009 – Foundation of Favas.net by Pnina Avidar, Rob van der Bijl & Juliette van der Meijden

Contributions to Favas.net by

Pnina Avidar, Nida Batool Sheikh, Irène Bavencoff, Benikbram, Ymkje de Boer, Renée van der Bijl, Rob van der Bijl, Shelley Bontje, Laurent Chambon, Tsaiher Cheng, Ntongwe Clovis Mbong, Danny Edwards, Jens Fiedler, Marek Jancovic, Co van Griensven, Oliwia Jackowska, Mohamed Hassan, Ron van den Heuvel, Tobias Hooftman, Jos Huber, Muhammad Wisal Khattak, Allard Kleinhuis, Geert Kloppenburg, Bart Koenen, Lex Koetzier, Raden Aliyya Putri Kusuma, Jaap Modder, Juliette van der Meijden, Robert Niessen, Laura Nino, Kazimierz (Kaz) Olszaniecki, Kees Pronk, Corentin Raimbaud, Onno Rieven, Roel Schoemaker, María Sempere Valdecantos, Raffaele (Lello) Sforza, Francis Sikkens, Liesbeth Sluiter, Bart van Spreeuwel, Hugo van der Steenhoven, Arjen van Susteren, Michael Tahmoressi, Tobias Woldendorp and many others.

Our activities in particular countries made possible by Juliette van der Meijden (Brazil); Laura Mendoza, Njord Pattiasina, Camila Pinzon, Paul Ravenstijn, Nico Tillie, Philip Verma, Pepijn Verpalen (Colombia); Helge Bay (Denmark); Laurent Chambon, Geert Kloppenburg (France); Raden Aliyya Putri Kusuma (Indonesia); Andrea Alessandri, Raffaele (Lello) Sforza (Italy), Koichiro Aitani, Dave van Eijnsbergen, Andrew David Fassam, Marc Glaudemans, Taichi Goto, Martin van der Linden, John Mader, Kei Minohara, Andy Pompilio, Emiko Szasz, Saline Verhoeven (Japan); Tom Potter (Norway); Bart Goldhoorn, Janine Hogendoorn, Johan Meijer, Anna Parkhomenko (Russia), Jaap Modder, Wendy Tan (Singapore), Jason Chang, Tsaiher Cheng, Ya-Wen Chen, Jody Chen, Casper Hsu, Charles Chin-rong Lin, Chou-Min Lin, Michel Sudarskis, (Taiwan), Thongchai Panswad (Thailand), Martin Glastra van Loon, Alan Moore (US).

SAFE PLACES / Veiligwonen.nl projects (1990-2016) were supported by Peter Bart, Betty van Bakel, Miranda Blomberg, Jelle de Boer, Rob Cornelissen, Sybille Denneman, Marc Dings, Jan van Dijk, Joop Doorman, Aart Eerland, Rieke Eerland, Waltraud Gerhardt, Arne Gielen, Paul Gruter, Nico Harkes, René Hesseling, Gertjan Hulster, Robbie Keus, Lex Koetzier, Harm-Jan Korthals Altes, Alexander Koutamanis, Tinus Kruger, Marc van Leusen, Susan Liebermann, Ita Luten, Fred Mutsaers, Hans Netten, Ralph Oei, Kazimierz (Kaz) Olszaniecki, Leen Prins, Kees Pronk, Petra Reijnhoudt, Jurgen Rosemann, René Scherpenisse, Paul van Soomeren, Liesbeth Sluiter, Egbert Stolk, Arjen van Susteren, Alexander Tzonis, Mieke van Veldhuizen, Peter Versteegh, Theo van der Voordt, Tobias Woldendorp, Chunlan Zhao, and Cora van Zwam.

The Dutch concept of ‘veilig wonen’ can literally be translated as ‘safe living’. Finally, ‘Safe Places’ was chosen as the English name. This translation is based on research by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa. In the late 90s, we worked together here with Susan Liebermann and Tinus Kruger on crime prevention. The concept ‘safe places’ is derived from their manual (with Karina Landman) ‘Designing Safer Places’ (CSIR, Pretoria, South Africa, 2001). Beware, the term ‘safe places’ should not be confused with the fashionable phenomenon of ‘safe spaces’ that is common in many of today’s American universities.

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