Urban Progress Studio Amsterdam has carried out several projects with the Holland Branding Group, headed by Maarten Konigs. Urban Progress provides urban design and regional analysis and identifies barriers to "identity formation" and also develops urban regeneration options while the Holland Branding Group studies the identity of neighborhoods, towns and regions. Together the team has developed an approach through which it works with the alliance to define the core values that alliance’s members share for the future of the area at hand. These core values, and the associated ‘brand’ for the area become the lead directive for the urban development and regeneration process. The team’s clients are normally the alliances that are involved in area development and regeneration and generally consist of the municipality, community members, developers, stakeholder groups, investors and others.

The team believes that the strategy of establishing core values and using these as the ‘terms of reference’ for the design process adds value to the overall approach. The approach introduces the ‘language of values’ into the design process and reflects the fact that most successful area developments and urban regeneration efforts are the work of groups of people, of alliances, and not of individual entrepreneurs or isolated government agencies. 

Even in the US, where the distance between developers and the city is generally much bigger, the planning process is an interactive and collaborative effort, involving city departments, community groups, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders. The experiences of the Holland Branding Group and Urban Progress suggest that communities can become forceful agents of change and progress. If communities are made part of the design and valuing process the alliances can benefit from their inputs. Urban Progress is keen to apply its experiences in working with alliances on value based proposals to projects in the US and elsewhere.