Making room for nature: TU Delft opens green building test site
A new outdoor test site on the TU Delft campus aims to speed up building methods that leave room for nature.
Published on October 28, 2026
© Delft University of Technology
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The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) is now home to a new test site, the NatuurBuurt, a space to test nature-inclusive building practices. The site sits on the grounds of The Green Village, the university's innovation test site, and aims to be a place to experiment and develop innovations that better integrate biodiversity into the built environment.
The opening ceremony took place yesterday, with Provincial Executive member Arno Bonte (Nature) in attendance. The province of South Holland has contributed financially to NatuurBuurt's development.
Why it matters
The Netherlands faces a tough puzzle over how to use its limited space. The country needs to build many new homes, while also dealing with a changing climate, a decline in plant and animal life, and growing pressure on public space.
Bonte believes that building with nature in mind can help tackle these problems together, rather than one at a time. "Nature is still too often seen as an afterthought rather than an integral part of area development," he said.
The province wants nature-inclusive building to become the norm. To get there, Bonte said, it first needs to find out what actually works. Solutions that prove themselves at NatuurBuurt could later be used across South Holland.
What is being tested
At The Green Village, new ideas are tested, monitored, improved and validated in real-world conditions. At NatuurBuurt, that includes tools for tracking biodiversity, nesting and resting places for animals, building products that make room for nature, and other ways to weave nature into the built environment.
The first projects are already under way. Among them are solutions from the companies Bioto and Luistervink that monitor biodiversity in urban areas.
From good idea to everyday use
Programme manager Lindsey Schwidder says many good ideas never make the leap to wide use. "There is often a big gap between a good idea and widespread application," she said.
By testing and developing innovations together with researchers, ecologists and partners in the field, NatuurBuurt wants to make that path much shorter, she explained. The test site is inviting organisations with nature-inclusive innovations to get in touch and explore how to bring their ideas into practice more quickly.
Open and ever-evolving, that’s how The Green Village tests innovations
The Green Village stands out as a disruptive field lab within the Delft University of Technology campus. IO had a tour of its innovative energy system projects.