MAIB34-City, Citizen and Space 2020-2021
Ava Dehghani Bani Fatima Mahdi Ghotbi Rishika Mariella Mendis Group 06 Culture/ Sub-Culture
Brussels (Next) Visionary Master Plan for the Northern Quarter
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City, Citizen and Space
Culture | Sub-Culture
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West | East From density to ‘phantom urbanism’? ‘Large urban plans that were built but never used’ Reinier de Graaf The function of this urbanism is in a way not to house people that are there, but to attract people in order to come It means urban projects which are built to fail to become at least 50% occupied within the first of completion. We can generalize this idea to the west side situation.
Experimental version Mixed='Urban' Different scales, same living spaces What if we mix two sides by merging/exchanging both sides dwellers, users, and qualities? How is this going to be possible regarding the ‘barrier’ in between?
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City, Citizen and Space
Culture | Sub-Culture
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New Master Plan 2050 The new masterplan is an attempt to blur the boundaries and disparity of the east and the west by transferring and mixing the two unique characteristics, architecture, urban fabric, and elements of the two. The strategies to carry out this intervention consisted of removing the main obstructive border – the railway station and track by moving it underground. New roads and paths were added to allow the continuity of flow from one side to other occur seamlessly. Diagonal roads which are radiating out of landmark points were a key feature of the east was emulated on the west. Strategies to densify the west, similarly to the east, comprised of bringing back the old block formations which existed here before the new Manhattan plan was built, this also revealed the river Senne that used to run along the site which the new site plan has brought back to establish new green and blue networks.
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City, Citizen and Space
Searching for different aspects of the society from the perspective of our group›s theme ‹culture and sub-culture›, we were trying to find out how people with different backgrounds and from various communities are living together this close and engaged around Place Liedts. By mapping people›s behavior and their daily activities, it became clear that what is existing and what is happening in this area is different in each part, and more dominantly, there is this duality on both sides of the railways. The railway is acting as a solid wall between the east side (Place Liedts, rue de Brabant and also the prostitution street) and the west side (the northern quarter, or which is an urban planning failure of the so-called Manhattan Plan). This is obvious regarding the urban fabric, housing typology, functions of the buildings, greenery, and even the density of the people living in both parts. What we saw was an organic urban fabric that was full of human-scale activities (spaces appropriated by people for doing their daily activities that are sometimes illegal) on the east side and the proximity to the Place Liedts. On the other hand, there is a 9 to 5 working hour›s life on the west side, where mostly white collars are working in those high rise half-empty glass towers, and the commuter of the Brussels North station who passing by the wide and dehumanized boulevards. Looking into the area from above, the difference in the size and dispersion of the green spaces is clearly visible. From the private mini courtyards of the residents› property on the east side to the vast greenery and large public parks on the west, the railway is like a boundary that has cut the green lines and blue dots. Current Situation 2020
Culture | Sub-Culture
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URBAN BLOCK TRANSFORMATION Ava Dehghani Location: Brussels Northern Quarter
Following the process of designing a fictional master plan for Brussels northern quarter, I picked a block and envisioned the transformation process of this block through the time to achieve the master plan we imagined. I chose the Proximus building which at this moment is a combination of two office towers connected with a bridge. I want to change these towers to a mixed functional block to create a livelihood urban context combination of housing and commercial.
CONTEXT
West
East
Typical Brusselian Housing Blocks
Office Towers
Migrants
Phantom Urbanism
Trans-Migrants Small Business
Open Spaces as Temporary Housing
Density Housing Shortage of Public Green Spaces
Temporary Housing New Master Plan Public Green Space
Urban Transformation
Human Scale Urban Tissue
EXISTING SITUATION
wo
Proximus building is a combination of two 28 levels towers with 102m in height. There is a building in the southeast of the block which is an 8 level building with underground parking levels. The bridge between the two towers is creating an icon of this building. The Belga tower building (the former name) has been built in 1996 as a continuation of the Manhattan plan in the 1970s of Brussels.
Industrial/Residential Manhattan Plan
Empty Land 1996
1987
1977
1971
1961
1953
1944
1930
1988
1980
1972
1960
LOOK INTO
Office/
THE HISTORY
/Administration
2050
2023
2020
2004
2016
Looking back to the transformation of this block from 1930 to today shows different eras with different functions and forms. Until the 1970s at the time of the Manhattan plan, it was a residential block and some industrial buildings. In 1977 the block was demolished and until 1996 it was empty. In 1996 the Belga tower has been built.
Dismantling WTC
Housing/ Commercial
URBAN TRAN
2020 After a year of teleworking and the presence of just 100 people in towers, as a result of the pandemic, Proximus announced that they would move to a smaller place until 2023.
At this time ing. The first is getting r of transmigra of the tower semi-open The second to to be fil The third bu to the struc cial center a
2026 Accommodate transmigrants and homeless people in collaboration with organizations like BXLRefugees or La Porte d’Ulysse in the first tower. An auditorium will be added to top of the tower one to create a cultural center on roof of the city. New buildings units grow around the existing tower, a combination of housing, commercial, productive activity, and services regarding new residences’ needs.
NSFORMATION
2023 Some Company like Citydev may buy the building in order of further changes in the area to get to 2050 Master Plan . Start of the dismantling of three buildings.
2024
e the new block borders are shapt tower height got reduced and it ready for temporary accommodation ants. Four levels from the bottom get opened to create public open/ space for the new urban block. ower dismantled into the structure lled with new housing units. uilding is also being dismantled cture to create the new commerand re using underground existing parking.
2030 A monumental stair added to the building to create vertical public space and access to the roof top and auditorium. In the new urban fabric, the small units will host the living and commercial spaces.
HOUSING
Typical historical housing blocks in Brussels shape around inner courtyards, a collection of private back yards. The private gardens have different sizes and proportions. Houses have two main facades one to the street which the entrance is also from that side. The second facade faces the inner garden which the ground level has access to it. In most of these houses, the ground floor is raised to 1.8m from the sidewalks and there is a floor half-buried.
A neat outline in the shape of the urban block formed by street structures and disordered outline from inside is the formal characteristic of typical Brussels urban blocks.
TYPOLOGY
Urban morphology - Depth: 10 to 15m - Width +- 6m - Height: 12 - 18m or 15 - 21m * depending on width of the streets - Individual character Layout of the plan - Double division (1/3 - 2/3)
One of the popular types of buildings in Brussels is the one with commercial space on the ground floor. In these cases, the residential entrance is still located on the side of the street beside the shop.
Residential Entrance
Commercial
Fayol Benoit, La Mansion De Bruxelloise, Ou La Flexibilite a petite echelle. p. 30, 31, 2017 Louis Cloquet, Traité d’architecture. Éléments de l’architecture. T.4, p. 40, 1900
HOUSING
Unit Type E
Unit Type D
Unit Type C
5.00m
6.00m
5.00m
6.00m
Unit Type B 10.00m 6.00m
Unit Type A
4.00m
10.00m
4.00m
5.00m
6.00m
15.00m
5.00m
6.00m
New housing typology can follow the existing morphology. The size of 6m width and the module of 5 m for depth can create a set of basic unit types that the combination of these units make a set of new typologies of housing in this block. The base units A and B with 3 and 2 modules create a ground floor unit with a combination of commercial/productive activity and residential units and a private garden on the side of the residential units.
TYPOLOGY Combination 01
Combination 02
A
C
Commercial
A
C
Commercial
Terrace
E
Residential
Terrace
D
Residential
Residential
Residential
Terrace
Residential
Residential
Terrace
Private Garden
Private Garden Level 0
Level +1
Combination 03 B
Level +2
C
Commercial
Level +1
Combination 04 B
E
Residential
Level 0
C
D
Residential Commercial
Residential
Level +2
Terrace
Private Garden
Residential
Terrace
Residential
Residential
Private Garden
Level 0
Level +1
Level +2
Level 0
Level +1
Level +2
For upper levels, there are three more types with 1 and 2 modules which can be combined in a lot of variations and create new housing types and new types of open spaces in between them. As a sample, we can imagine these four combinations in the plan and these two combinations in the section. There is the possibility of buildup on these houses through time and become higher.
Terrace
Residential
Residential
Residential
Sidewalk
Commercial
Residential
Private Garden
Public Courtyard
Sidewalk
Terrace
Terrace
Residential
Commercial
Residential
Private Garden
Public Courtyard
UNITS COMBINATION OPEN SPACES
Collective Terrace
Private Garden
Private Terrace
Collective Terrace
Private Terrace
D C B
Public Courtyard
Different combination of units creates new typology and combination of these new housing types create new urban blocks with a new type of open spaces between them. In addition to private gardens in front of the residential units, there a lot of elevated open spaces that can be private and also collective between the houses facing that open spaces. Social clusters can create around these new collective open spaces.
SITE PLAN
Commercial
Commercial
Residential Private Garden
Public Courtyard Block Entrance
Commercial
Public Stairs
Shopping Street
Public Stairs
Temporary Housing Entrance Lobby Block Entrance
Residential Entrance
Cafe Canal
Art Gallery
Commercial Center
Commercial Center
Following the typical urban block patterns in Brussels, these new housing combinations arrange around the block creating a neat outline from the outside facade which is commercial on the ground floor and residential on top floors. And from the inside make a more organic outline based on the ground floor unit type. The inside courtyard which continues under the tower creates a public open space inside the block which can become a gathering space, playground, market place and ... .
Public Auditorium
Urban Stair Mid-rise Residential
Urban Terrace
Temporary Housing
Cultural Units
Urban Terrace
Public Courtyard
Low-rise Residential/ Commercial
NORTH-WEST
Urban Terrace
Public Auditorium
Urban Stair
Mid-rise Residential
Low-rise Residential/ Commercial
Commercial Commercial Center
SOUTH-EAST
GROUND FLOOR PLAN- BEFORE
ROOF PLAN- BEFORE
GROUND FLOOR PLAN- AFTER
ROOF PLAN- AFTER