Delft: From Industraial City to Knowledge City

Delft is located in The Netherlands, in the province of south Holland. The city has a long tradition in industrial activity, in sectors like metal industry, chemical industry, construction, food and drinks. Especially before 1975, the industry employment was an important feature. However, in the decades of 1970s and 1980s, the difficulties that the industrial companies faced, resulted in a significant drop of employment in the industrial sector. Unemployment used to be a main problem for local authorities as well as for national government. The local government of Delft responded to this decline in employment in a way that can be distinguished in three phases:
Phase 1. In this phase, placed chronologically at the end of the decade of the 1970s, the objective was to maintain the number of jobs. The local government had the opinion that an active policy was necessary and recognized the importance of the local University of Technology and of TNO (research institute) in the direction of offering business in Delft. However, the local government did not translate this into specific policy measures.
Phase 2. Unemployment increased considerably in the beginning of the 1980s. Much attention was paid to social and cultural activities for the unemployed. At the end of the decade the local government realized that the city needed to have a clear vision for the future. The project known as “View of Delft” set a new direction for the local government. Delft, as a modern center of knowledge, was considered to be one of the strong points for future development.
Phase 3. The development of Delft, the knowledge city. A study implemented for the city, by TNO-INRO (TNO-INRO, 1990; Knight, 1995), named “Delft, the knowledge city”, offered an extensive analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of Delft economy. The main conclusion was that knowledge was one of its strongest points. About one-third of jobs in Delft were knowledge-intensive. According to the report, the local government had the responsibility of taking the initiative to transform Delft into a knowledge city, through the promotion of networks linking local business, the university, research institutions and the local government as partners. In order to bridge the “traditional Delft” and the knowledge sector, a change in culture was needed. Citizens, companies and social organizations should be actively involved in this cultural shift. Knowledge was no longer an abstract meaning, but it was regarded as a production factor like labor and capital. In 1996, Delft City Council adopted the main strategy in order to further develop as a knowledge city. This strategy could not be accomplished by the city on its own. Practitioners from the “knowledge industry” were invited to take part in the planning process. Knowledge players in town were asked to help define the mission and develop an action plan, financed by the $3 million fund that was made available. Since then, 60 projects have been carried out. At the beginning of the 1990s, 30 percent of the economy was knowledge-based and had grown to 40 percent by the end of the century. The city clustered its knowledge intensive projects, included in the “Delft Knowledge City” initiative, in five streams, which reflect Delft’s strengths: (1) water and soil; (2) design and architecture; (3) information technology; (4) innovative transport systems; and (5) environmental technologies.
During implementation of the strategy, the intention was to strengthen these points and thereby increase employment levels in Delft as well as the familiarity of Delft as a brand.