What dilemmas will Maashorst face on the path toward 2050?

The municipality of Maashorst wants to offer a perspective on the long-term future of Uden and the surrounding villages. In a traditional vision, it often remains unclear which difficult choices have been made, and the result is a compromise that everyone can agree on. Our aim was not to produce a vision document full of abstract ambitions, but rather one that truly fits the municipality’s DNA and its residents. Together with the Board of Mayor and Aldermen and the strategic team, we worked intensively to bring Maashorst 2050 to life.

The challenge
How do you, as a young municipality, formulate a future vision that is both distinctive and recognisable? And that provides guidance in a rapidly changing world without getting lost in generalities? A vision in which residents recognise the municipality they know, and in which the characteristics of Maashorst are clearly reflected. As it turns out, looking and thinking 25 years ahead is not that easy.

Maashorst faced the task of making difficult long-term choices while the future remains full of uncertainties. Climate change, changing household compositions, new values among younger generations, and technological developments — all factors that will influence what the municipality will look like in 2050. The challenge was to interpret what today’s many developments mean for Maashorst toward 2050 and to determine which choices and dilemmas they entail: are we a green municipality, a technological municipality, a care-focused municipality, or a bit of everything? This is not simple: a vision that is too broad provides no direction, while one that is too narrow loses support.

The insight
The strength of the vision lies not in a thick policy document, but in a sharp, inspiring, and guiding compass with five desirable future directions. By assessing whether ideas and new initiatives align with these future directions, the compass helps Maashorst make future choices.

The compass was created entirely through co-creation. Six Fingers wrote the first drafts with input from the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, the municipal council, and young residents, after which the team of strategists further refined the texts. This resulted in an outcome that feels authentic and helps navigate toward 2050. To make the future tangible, we visually brought the vision to life using AI-generated images.