CROSSING // Social and spatial explorations between the boundaries through design
Activating the Waterfront
A Manifesto of Pragmatism
Lydia Karagiannaki, 21.04.15
While the design studio question involved the canal area between Tour & Taxis and the Sainctelette Bridge with the according inner city blocks, I decided to extend my scope in length but reduce it in its width. In this larger part of the canal, I situate one of the most crucial problems of Brussels nowadays, namely a long corridor that crosses through the city, but is left in abandonment for many years. Partly because of the relocation of the industry outside of this part of the city, partly because of the physicality and materiality of this barrier and partly because of the historic evolution of the immigrant waves that have inhabited the west part of Brussels, the Canal nowadays constitutes a particularly tangible, real and urging borderline. Moreover, it lacks meaning, content or program. By that it’s not meant that there is nothing happening, or no real qualities to be found, but that they are rather random, not being able to give a specific identity or meaning to the space. The Canal case raises major questions for Brussels, as a city that struggles to meet the expectations of a European Capital, swaying between the local and the global. With the anthropogeographical aftermath of the European Quarter or the Manhattan Project, the city is more careful with issues regarding local populations. What the Canal area may prove, is that no big moves, no mega-projects are the right ones. Maybe our approach as planners should be a humble and pragmatic one, rather than the uncertain promises of a self-referential architecture.
For this semester’s exercise, I decided to see the Canal as a Manifesto of Pragmatism. Any future visions must derive from the existing and the possible. Focusing on the direct proximity to the waterfront, what needs to be done is to recover the continuity of the city. The first observation of the lack of content, the empty buildings, the absent activities, the feeling of unsafety or boredom, can be seen as a chance to transform this wounded part of the city. Moreover, the conflicting city districts on the two sides of the Canal can find reconciliation directly on the trace of their borderline. By not spatially involving the inner districts in my research, this does not mean that they do not have a direct effect on the focus area. On the contrary, the canal-front can answer questions very relevant for the neighbouring districts, such as social sustainability, migrant integration, collective memory or the functional city. These can and should be integrated in the design proposal, which consists of a variety of interventions, directly on the waterfront, including different programs, users, scales, permeability grades and rhythms. On the one hand, what combines the elements of this acupunctural strategy are matters such as encouraging productivity rather than consumption, or promoting the collective rather than the individual. On the other hand, their common goal is to reactivate the Canal, by making it a meaningful and creative place inside a Brussels’ archipelago of centralities.
A divided City
A canal that constitutes the borderline between two districts, breaking the continuity of the city
and imposing a deep cut
in the urban fabric
The canal-front as the backyard of the opposite districts.
Hypothesis 1 promotion of urbanity
Hypothesis 2 local Vs global
Hypothesis 3 production Vs consumption
Network of Interventions
The tools
1. Local topography (using the element of the water) 2. Cross-direction (parallel to or crossing the Canal) 3.Temporality (daily, weekly, annual rhythms) 4. Scale (diversity of scales) 5. Program (diversity of activities and users) 6. Local character (adressing local issues) 7. Legislative framework (offering incentives, funds and expertise)
continuity of the public space we need a reason
barge elevator: a spectacle we need a stage
position vacancies! we need an attraction
some birds sing like spring is coming through my window we need a park around the bridge
a busy roundabout we need something spectacular (or hidden)
my friends from the neighbourhood we need to expand
new kids in town we need contact
Coninuity by the Event
The example of the floating market interconnecting the city encouraging productivity imposing periodicity revitalizing paused space