BRIDGES: CONNECTIONS WHERE LINES BECOME URBAN SPACES by Dimitris Panayotopoulos

BRIDGES

CONNECTIONS WHERE LINES B E C O M E U R B A N S PAC E S

B R ID G ES

This Master Class was held from November

Assistant Coordinators

Brussels Universities

Participants

2nd to November 13th 2015, organised by

Dimitrios Panayotopoulos-Tsiros

Université libre de Bruxelles

Apetroaie Maria Oana

Louise (Laboratory on Urbanism, Infrastructure

ULB

Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Carraro Marco

and Ecologies, ULB Faculty of Architecture)

Rien Van de Wall

and Cosmopolis – SteR* (Stedenbouw en

VUB / ADT-ATO

Ruimtelijke planning, VUB) with the support

D’aurello Francesco Invited Universities

De Rossi Matteo

AHO Oslo – NOR

Estevez Piorno Pere

of the Cabinet of the Minister in charge of

Academic Staff

TU Wien – AUS

Ertürk Tugyan

Mobility and Public Works.

Paola Alfaro d’Alençon

Università Iuav di Venezia – IT

Gamser Bianca

Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura

Geens Willem

TU Berlin

Scientific Committee

Kana Arioka

de Barcelona – SP

Fuster Arion Ludmila

Andrea Bortolotti

TU Berlin – DE

Haruka Uemura

Andrea Bortolotti

Waseda Tokyo – JP

Hernandez Ana Maria

Lousie – ULB

VUB / ULB

Nadia Casabella

ULB

Nadia Casabella

Jury

Leonardi Maria

Geoffrey Grulois

Kristiaan Borret

Marti Elias Joan

Carles Crosas

Geraud Bonhomme

Martinez Angel

Benoit Moritz

ETSAB

Sven De Bruycker

Nikolic Biljana

Geoffrey Grulois

Benoit Moritz

Onoyama Kae

Dimitrios Panayotopoulos-Tsiros

ULB

Fabio Vanin

Pan Chen

Elina Kränzle

Michael Ryckewaert

Raabe Heike

Claire Pelgrims

Geoffrey Grulois

Schmidt Stephan

Keigo Kobayashi

Nadia Casabella

Schwarzenberger Birgit

Michael Ryckewaert

Georges Pirson

Tomasoni Federico

Benoit Moritz

Ward Werbackel

Trias Prats Helena

Rien Van de Wall

ULB

Benoit Moritz

Türemis Tamara

Claire Pelgrims

Rien van de Wal

Vanhoutte Giel

Yannick Vanhaelen

ULB

Aglaeé Degros

Weindauer Sebastian

Jorge Perea

Stefan Bendiks

Wicart Nicolas

Fabio Vanin

ETSAB

Jorge Perea

Michael Ryckewaert

Paola Alfaro d’Aleçon

VUB

Ali Saad

Louise – ULB / Cosmopolis – VUB Louise – ULB Louise – ULB Louise – ULB Louise – ULB Cosmopolis – VUB Cosmopolis – VUB / ADT-ATO Louise – ULB Cosmopolis – VUB

ULB / VUB

TU Wien Waseda Tokyo

Master Tutors

Ali Saad

Stefan Bendiks

Artgineering

Chiara Tosi

Aglaée Degros

IUAV

Artgineering

Yannick Vanhaelen

TU Berlin

ULB Coordinator

Fabio Vanin

VUB

Giambattista Zaccariotto

AHO Oslo

Kengo Tachino

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FOREWORD

‘B R I D G ES’. AN E VO CAT I V E T I T L E T HAT D I R ECTS, T R AN S C E N D S, UN I T ES. Following the accomplishments of research studies, such as ‘100% Brussels’, ‘Re: work’, and ‘End of Line’, this study proposes to examine Brussels from a different angle by focusing on urban design, architecture, and mobility, considering those elements in an urban context. Brussels is nowadays a changing city at a turning point. It may indeed no longer be able to escape the challenges related to mobility, including the revitalisation and interconnections among neighbourhoods. The objective of this master class was very clear: to inaugurate a wider reflection on the need to build bridges, not in the literal sense, but as cognitive elements that are able to forge links between neighbourhoods and today’s isolated communities. Because of the ability of bridges to transform a neighbourhood and influence the social and economic environment, the study of the integration of new bridges and walkways in the urban fabric is a fundamental element that deserves special attention. In Brussels, most of the bridges over the canal are now veritable crossroads devoted to car traffic. Just think about Porte de Ninove, Van Praet, Trooz. I think it is time to break with this vision. It is essential to find a new balance in the public space that gives space to people and different mobility modes by promoting the circulation of public transport, cyclists, and pedestrians. More than just a simple balancing, the installation of new bridges and the

redevelopment of the Canal Zone aim to create new meeting places in the city and reveal the water in the urban landscape, allowing Brussels to rediscover its channel, a water body that has been neglected and unloved for too long. We aspire to build a city for the people instead of a city for cars. Therefore Brussels needs strong projects that create bridges connecting the past, the present reality, and future developments. It is imperative to launch unifying projects that are capable of linking Brussels’ inhabitants to their city, culture, and economy, projects that can contribute to the city’s international reputation and local well-being. In my view, the realisation of ‘flagship projects’ must also stimulate the emergence of a sense of pride in Brussels’ inhabitants, enabling people to reconcile with their neighbourhoods, their cities, and Brussels as a whole. Recent projects – such as the opening of MIMA, the revitalisation of the waterfront, the creation of the future Ninove Gate Park, the lighting of the area along the canal, and the creation of new bridges – reflect this change. With ambition and lots of energy, formerly distant dreams are translated today into concrete projects that very soon will become reality. More than ever, all together, it is essential to build ‘bridges’ to connect neighbourhoods, transform the city, and unite Brussels’ inhabitants. Enjoy your reading, Pascal Smet

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P RÉ FAC E

VOORWOORD

« BRID G ES ». UN TITRE ÉVOCAT E U R , Q UI CO N C ENTRE , QUI TRA NSC E NDE , QUI UNIT.

‘B R I D G ES’. E E N I N S PI R E R E N D E T I T E L D I E R I C HT I N G G E E F T, OV E R ST I J GT E N V E R B I N DT.

Après la réalisation de travaux de recherche tels que 100% Brussels, Re:work et End of Line, cet ouvrage propose d’étudier Bruxelles sous un autre angle en s’intéressant tout particulièrement aux réponses urbanistiques, architecturales et de mobilité à apporter aux enjeux en milieu urbain. Ville en pleine mutation, Bruxelles est aujourd’hui à un tournant de son histoire. Elle ne peut en effet plus échapper aux défis liés à la mobilité, à la revitalisation et à l’interconnexion entre les quartiers. L’objectif de cette master class était très clair: lancer une réflexion plus large sur la nécessité de construire des ponts, non pas au sens propre du terme, mais en tant qu’élément cognitif capable de tisser des liens entre les quartiers et les communautés encore trop isolées aujourd’hui. Par sa capacité à transformer un quartier et à influencer son environnement social et économique, l’étude de l’intégration de nouveaux ponts et passerelles dans le tissu urbain est donc un élément fondamental qui mérite que l’on s’y attarde. A Bruxelles, la plupart des ponts qui surplombent le canal sont aujourd’hui de véritables carrefours dévolus à la voiture. Il suffit de penser à la Porte de Ninove, à Van Praet, à Trooz. Selon moi, il est temps de rompre avec cette vision. Il est en effet essentiel de trouver un nouvel équilibre dans l’espace public et de redonner de l’espace aux gens et aux différents modes de transports en promouvant les transports en commun, les déplacements cyclistes et piétons. Davantage qu’un simple rééquilibrage, l’installation de nouvelles passe-

relles et le réaménagement de la zone du canal vise à créer de nouveaux lieux de rencontres dans la ville, à faire émerger l’eau dans le paysage urbain et permettre aux bruxellois de redécouvrir leur canal, ce point d’eau effacé qui a trop longtemps été délaissé et malaimé. Nous aspirons ainsi à construire une ville pour les gens au lieu d’une ville pour les voitures. Bruxelles a dès lors besoin de projets forts qui créent des ponts entre son passé, la réalité présente et son développement futur. Il est en effet impératif de lancer des projets fédérateurs qui sont capables de relier les bruxellois à leur ville, à la culture, à l’économie et qui contribuent au rayonnement international et au bien-être au niveau local. Selon moi, la réalisation de ‘projets phares’ doit également participer à l’émergence d’un sentiment de fierté chez les bruxellois et permettre de réconcilier les habitants avec leurs quartiers, leur ville, Bruxelles. Des projets récents tels que l’ouverture du MIMA, la revitalisation des quais, la création du futur parc Porte de Ninove, la mise en lumière des abords du canal, la création de nouvelles passerelles traduisent cette volonté de changement. Avec de l’ambition et beaucoup d’énergie, les rêves autrefois lointains se traduisent aujourd’hui en projets concrets qui, très bientôt, deviendront réalité. Plus que jamais, tous ensemble, il est essentiel de construire des « bridges » pour relier les quartiers, transformer la ville et unir les bruxellois. Bonne lecture, Pascal Smet

Na het onderzoekswerk voor ‘100% Brussels’, ‘Re: work’ en ‘End of Line’, bestudeert deze publicatie Brussel vanuit een andere hoek. Ze focust meer bepaald op de stedenbouwkundige, architecturale en mobiliteitsoplossingen voor verschillende uitdagingen in de stedelijke omgeving. Brusssel is een stad in verandering, die zich vandaag op een scharnierpunt bevindt. De stad kan de uitdagingen op vlak van mobiliteit, de herwaardering en het verbinden van wijken niet langer negeren. De doelstellingen van deze masterclass zijn klaar en duidelijk: een brede reflectie opstarten over de noodzaak om bruggen te bouwen, niet zo zeer in de letterlijke zin van het woord, maar wel als mentale beelden die toelaten om banden te smeden tussen wijken en gemeenschappen die vandaag nog te geïsoleerd zijn. Doordat bruggen en passerelles buurten transformeren en invloed hebben op de sociale en economische omgeving van de wijk, verdient hun integratie in het stedelijke weefsel een diepgaande studie. In Brussel zijn de meeste bruggen over het kanaal vandaag vooral kruispunten voor wagens. Denk maar aan de Ninoofsepoort, de Van Praet- en Trooz-bruggen. Volgens mij is het tijd voor een nieuwe visie. Het is inderdaad essentieel om een nieuw evenwicht te vinden in de publieke ruimte en om ruimte terug te geven aan de stadsbewoners en aan andere tranportmodi, door het openbaar vervoer en verplaatsingen met de fiets en te voet te promoten. Meer nog dan het vinden van een nieuw evenwicht, heeft de bouw van nieuwe bruggen en de heraanleg van de kanaalzone als

doel om nieuwe ontmoetingsruimten in de stad te doen ontstaan, om het water weer te laten verschijnen in het stadslandschap en om de Brusselaars hun kanaal te laten herontdekken, een kanaal dat al te lang verwaarloosd en veel te weinig als watervlak gekoesterd is. Zo streven we er naar om een stad voor de mensen te bouwen, in plaats van een stad voor de auto. Brussel heeft daarom nood aan sterke projecten die bruggen slaan tussen het verleden, de hedendaagse werkelijkheid en de toekomstige ontwikkeling. Het is nodig om wervende projecten te lanceren die Brusselaars opnieuw verbinden met hun stad, haar cultuur en haar economie, en die bijdragen aan de internationale uitstraling en de lokale leefbaarheid. Volgens mij moet de realisatie van ‘emblematische projecten’ bijdragen aan het ontstaan van een gevoel van fierheid bij de Brusselaars, en toelaten dat inwoners zich vereenzel-vigen met hun buurt, hun stad, met Brussel. Recente projecten zoals de opening van het MIMA, de vernieuwing van de kaaien, de aanleg van het toekomstige park op de Ninoofsepoort, de uitlichting van de kanaaloevers en de bouw van nieuwe voetgangersbruggen getuigen van die wil om te veranderen. Met ambitie en veel energie hebben verre dromen zich vandaag vertaald in concrete projecten, die binnenkort realiteit worden. Meer dan ooit is het essentieel om, allemaal samen, ‘bruggen’ te bouwen om wijken te verbinden, de stad te veranderen en de Brusselaars te verenigen. Veel leesplezier, Pascal Smet

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CONTENT

FORE WORD

Pascal Smet

IN T R OD U C T ION

Jens Aerts

BRID GE S

PA S T A ND F U T U R E O F B R U S S E L S ’

Rien van de Wall

17 19

T R A N S P O R T INF R A S T R U C T U R E S

B R ID G IN G W I T H O R W I T H O U T B R ID G E S

Fabio Vanin

25 31

‘ B R ID G E S ’ – O R T HE A R T O F T R I C K E R Y

Stefan Bendiks and Aglaée Degros

PR OP O S A L S

S I T E 1 – W E S T S TAT I O N - G A R E D E L’ O U E S T

S I T E 2 – Q UA I D E ME T S

S I T E 3 – B O U L E VA R D R E Y E R S

S I T E 4 – P L AC E S A IN C L E T T E

RE A DINGS T HE ‘ P L AC E R E L L E ’

161

Ward Verbakel (Plusoffice architects)

PA S S AG E S

153 155

Michael Bianchi (L’Escaut)

MID D L E C I T IE S PA S S AG E S

37 41 67 93 123

167

Pierre-Marie Auffret, Vincent Hertenberger, Agathe Lavielle (SUN+GATE)

PR OFILE S

175

INTRODUCTION Je n s Ae r t s

This publication contains the results and debates produced by the International Master Class â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Bridgesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, co-organised in Brussels by the Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research of the Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB) and the Laboratory on Urbanism, Infrastructures and Ecologies of the UniversitĂŠ Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), from November 2 until November 13, 2015. It was the third Master Class organised by the two Brussels universities as a common engagement to bridge the actual communitarian landscape of research institutes in Brussels and to build on a shared expertise in research by design. This research method has become a common practice among Brussels architects and urbanists, whether practitioners or students. Recently, a specific research by design cell has been integrated into the extended team of the Brussels Bouwmeester. Beyond this initiative, the teachers from both research centres are equally convinced of the necessity of repeating this collaboration to nurture the emergence of a kind of urban pedagogy that uses the reality of Brussels, whether institutional, geographic, or territorial. Our aim is to consciously build the ambitious network of reference universities Brussels deserves, a network that addresses the many challenges Brussels and its metropolitan area will be facing in the near future as a European metropolis and capital city. Similar to the two previous master classes, the research is begun with the acknowledgement that the current demographic growth of the Brussels population

indicates the need not only for an accelerated and innovative production of housing but also for the necessary supporting amenities, such as vibrant economic spaces, social infrastructure, and mobility platforms. The first master class, ‘RE:WORK, Making Place for Industry, Logistics and Wholesale in Brussels’ (2013), focused on new models to integrate the urban economy in the city that is densifying, making available land more scarce and expensive. Since then, the question of the urban economy in the city has been put on the agenda of many European cities. The second master class, ‘End of Line, Combining Housing Facilities and Transport Infrastructure in Brussels’ (2015), highlighted the urgency of developing transportation infrastructure beyond its utilitarian design and framing such infrastructures as contexts for urban programs that couple collective interests, such as public transport and private services. The current debate about mobility challenges on the metropolitan scale underscores the importance of seeing mobility networks as urban assets that should be diversified, programmed, and designed as such. This third master class addresses the concern that, despite the existing connections between districts and urban programs within the city, in the daily lives of inhabitants and commuters, urban fractures still exist, dividing the territory, diminishing the potential capacities of the city, and especially, formalizing important socioeconomic inequalities. These fractures are largely existing ones caused by heavy infrastructure and large complexes or monofunctional areas. These fractures are highly unlikely to disappear. On the contrary, the densifying or intensifying of urban areas and development of new connections will, from a merely technical point of view, cause more fragmentation to appear. The recent deadlock situation in Brussels has again highlighted the importance of using all opportunities to better connect the city and its people through their common challenges.

From a spatial aspect, the drafts of the ‘Regional Plan for Sustainable Development’ and the ‘Guide Plan for Neighbourhood Regeneration’ have shown a substantial need to improve or create new connections in the Belgian capital. Both plans contextualise precise proposals for bridges, whereas numerous actors in Brussels have already initiated ideas for them. For such initiatives to be implemented and formalised, discussion addressing not only urban and architectural design but also technical and socioeconomic aspects is necessary. Hence, the connection must be envisioned not only as a physical link from A to B but also as fully-fledged sociospatial interventions that can construct or reconstruct urban areas as connectors between neighbourhoods, fostering dialogue and open discussions and increasing social engagement. Therefore, the master class ‘BRIDGES, Connections Where Lines Become Urban Spaces’ addressed these issues by focusing less on the technical aspect of the connection and more on the potentials of the compounds, re-imagining new active urban places and public spaces intervening in key socioeconomic nodes of Brussels. In that way, the master class aimed to develop a broad, holistic framework for specific case studies to inspire relevant stakeholders to develop these connections beyond the technical challenge. With regard to the implementation of new bridges, the master class interpreted the notion of bridging through two parallel notions: in space as overcoming an obstacle and connecting separated sides and in time as the catalyst of change from previous situations toward a better future, the materialisation of transformation. In that line of thinking, BRIDGES explored with precision how to overcome waterways and road and rail infrastructures while overcoming zoning urbanism, that is, car-dominated mobility or social segregation. It focused specifically on the transition of exemplary sites in critical areas of Brussels, exploring how literally and figuratively

to build bridges from the city of the past to the city of the future. We take this opportunity to thank Pascal Smet, Minister in Charge of Mobility and Public Works for the Brussels-Capital Region, and the members of his cabinet and administration who gave us support and made this initiative possible. We also want to thank Stefan Bendiks and Aglaee Degros of Artgineering and Brussels Bouwmeester Kristiaan Borret for their involvement and commitment to this project. We thank the participants and teachers for their intense work during these 2 weeks and the impressive results that came out of it. Finally, we thank Fabio Vanin, who coordinated the workshop with Rien van de Wal and Dimitris Panayotopoulos on a daily basis and actively supported the teaching staff.

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PAST AND FUTURE OF BRUSSELS’ TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURES R i e n v a n d e Wa ll

The Brussels urban fabric is characterised by a number of physical ruptures and disconnections, brought about by heavy transport infrastructures: highways, railways, and waterways. Because these infrastructures are largely associated with the modern city, Brussels is far from a unique case. However, while many metropolises around the globe have acknowledged the problematic character of their infrastructures for several decades – that they connect but also separate – , Brussels has only recently taken its first steps to address this matter. A BRIE F HI STO RY O F M O D E RN T RA NS P O RT INFRAST RU CT U RE I N B RU S S E LS Most contemporary heavy infrastructures in Brussels find their raison d’être in the context of the city’s gradual industrialisation and urbanisation. During the 19th century, Belgium developed into the second industrial power in the world, and the country’s capital became its most important industrial basin in terms of employment. At the start of the century, like many other cities, Brussels was not at all equipped to accommodate economic activities of this scale. The lower part of the city experienced the construction of modern infrastructures, aimed at facilitating the industrialisation process. The 16th-century canal that linked Brussels with the seaport of Antwerp was extended towards Charleroi in the south to allow a smooth supply of coal to Brussels industries. It opened in 1832. Three years later, a first railway between Brussels and Mechelen was

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brought into operation, and other railways followed quickly. Many factories and warehouses were constructed in the immediate vicinity of canals and railways. In the wake of these industries, Brussels’ population grew massively. In 1830, the city counted 100,000 inhabitants, a number that subsequently increased by more than half in 15 years. Although some small bourgeois and industrial faubourgs appeared in the surrounding countryside after Belgium gained its independence, urban expansion was greatly hindered by fiscal policy for several decades. In 1860, the city boundaries still coincided more or less with the second medieval wall, torn down at the start of the 19th century and formalised in a pentagonal shaped ring of boulevards. After 1860, urbanisation was off to a roaring start, and the nearby villages rapidly became part of the agglomeration. The key figure in the urbanisation after 1860 was Victor Besme, road surveyor of the Brussels surroundings. In his General Plan for the Extension and Embellishment of the City and Suburbs (1863), Besme conceived vast parks and kilometres of boulevards, which were meant to structure the new neighbourhoods (cf. Case 3: Reyers). The Plan would remain the guideline for the city’s expansion until the inter-war period. Meanwhile, industrialisation along the canal continued. As Brussels became the centre of a dense rail network, the absence of a link between North and South Station became an increasingly crucial issue. A first solution was offered by the 1871 opening of a railway bypassing the city on its west side. It became a chief industrial corridor and further stimulated the industrialisation with an important goods yard (cf. Case 1: West Station). When the city’s abattoir needed a new site to move to, its owners chose an area next to the canal with direct access to the new bypass railroad. It opened in 1888 (cf. Case 2: Abattoir). New developments in shipping required a profound modernisation of the canal and harbour infrastructures.

PAST A N D F U TU RE OF BRU SSE LS’ T RA NSP ORT INFRAST RU CT U RES

Between 1896 and 1922, a seaport was constructed north of the city centre. It entailed filling the old city docks and straightening the connection between the 16th- and 19thcentury canals (cf. Case 4: Sainctelette). Part of the new port was the Tour and Taxis site (1910), a vast goods yard and customs hub, directly connected to the bypass railroad. During the inter-war period, the car appeared in Brussels streets. The layout of many boulevards was quickly modified to facilitate car traffic. This process intensified after the Second World War. In 1958, Brussels hosted the first post-war world expo, with its focus on modernity and progress. On this occasion, the Belgian government decided to provide the capital with state-of-the-art road infrastructure. A sequence of tunnels was constructed in the boulevards around the city centre, and an elevated highway linked them to the expo site at the Heysel Plateau. In the following years, as automobiles came to rule in even the smallest streets, more boulevards were transformed into urban highways, often – and strangely – combined with the building of a stretch of metro. This development culminated in an overall plan, drawn by the national highway administration, that foresaw the construction of a dense network of urban highways. In 1968, Brussels residents and local authorities began to criticise the plan heavily. It was abandoned some 5 years later. GROW I NG AWA RE NES S The urban highway plan was, in fact, part of modernist urban planning, which had a particular view of urban ruptures. Because these highways were meant to enable smooth individual transport between living, working, and recreation areas, they were a complement of the idea of functional zoning, an idea to which ruptures are inherent and not considered problematic. In cases where car traffic conflicted with substantial flow of pedestrians, modernists opted for grade-separated walkways, as imagined in the ‘Manhattan Plan’ for the area around Brussels’ North Station.

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By turning their back on modernist planning during the 1970s and supporting an urban renewal policy inspired by pre-modernist architecture and urbanism, Brussels’ municipal authorities progressively became aware of the detrimental effect of urban ruptures caused by over-scale transport infrastructures. They rediscovered the meaning of streets and squares as public spaces. Shopping streets like Rue Neuve were hesitantly pedestrianised, sidewalks were enlarged, and parking lots disappeared from the most emblematic urban squares (e.g., Grand Place). After the creation of the Brussels Capital Region in 1989, an ambitious urban renovation policy was adopted in the most run-down districts in the city centre and the 19thcentury belt. The so-called ‘neighbourhood contracts’ were meant to improve the quality of life by actively stimulating housing renovation and refurbishing public space. However, the largest urban ruptures remained untouched for a long time. The dismantling of the 1958 elevated highway, the Koekelberg Viaduct, and its replacement with a tunnel in the mid-1980s was an isolated case. Neighbourhood contracts rarely included railways, canals, and boulevards in their intervention perimeter. Rather, infrastructures were used to delimit the perimeter. Only after the turn of the millennium did Brussels begin to acknowledge in its urban policy the strategic importance of these areas. The 2001 Land Use Plan (PRAS / GBP) and the 2002 Regional Development Plan (PRD / GewOP), respectively, indicated ‘areas of regional interest’ and ‘lever areas’, most being large derelict territories separating residential urban neighbourhoods from each other and marked by large-scale infrastructures. Initially, most were meant to accommodate large-scale amenities to strengthen Brussels’ position in international metropolitan networks. This objective, confirmed by the 2008 International Development Plan (PDI / PIO), was welcomed by civil society with a measure of scepticism.

PAST A N D F U TU RE OF BRU SSE LS’ T RA NSP ORT INFRAST RU CT U RES

The demographic boom the Belgian capital has experienced during the past decade caused a need for a broader perspective of the lever areas. Because most of them are within easy access of public transport, recent master plans for their development include a significant share of housing, next to economic activities and public amenities. In addition, a new tool in urban renovation policy will soon apply the methods of the neighbourhood contracts to derelict zones and urban ruptures. These methods will allow such neighbourhoods to fully integrate into the urban fabric and make sure that ‘bridging’ ruptures will benefit the adjacent districts. Closely related to these developments are the planned transformation of the over-scale entrance to the E40 highway into a narrower ‘parkway’ and the refurbishment of one of Victor Besme’s boulevards, which was begun with the demolition of the Reyers Viaduct in November 2015. A discussion is still ongoing about the future of the Herrmann-Debroux Viaduct, another elevated highway in the southeast part of the agglomeration. The above examples show that Brussels is actively searching for ways to address its heritage of transport infrastructures and urban ruptures. The proposals elaborated during the master class for four exemplary sites, each presenting a rupture of a different kind, may provide inspiration to bridge these territories and to integrate them into their surrounding urban fabric.

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BRIDGING WITH OR WITHOUT BRIDGES Fa b i o Va n i n

One of the strongest and long lasting debates on the construction of a recent bridge has been in the ‘Bridge of the Constitution’, better known as the Calatrava Bridge. The controversial 4th bridge of Venice, designed by Santiago Calatrava in 1996 and opened 12 years later in 2008, has been at the centre of heated disputes involving renowned intellectuals, such as Massimo Cacciari (philosopher and former mayor of Venice), Franco La Cecla, Francesco dal Co, various politicians and the general public. What is interesting to notice is that the arguments of the discussion filling articles and essays, interviews, and TV shows ranged from addressing very practical issues (why connecting point A with B, structural solutions, costs) to stylistic, ideological, metaphorical, and even superstitious ones. In that context, the competition for the Rialto bridge of 1551, that involved eminent architects of that time, such as Andrea Palladio and Jacopo Sansovino, has been often referred to concerning the importance of the image of the bridge – the unrealised proposal of Palladio represented in the Capriccio by Canaletto is perhaps more renowned than the existing bridge.) The rejected projects of Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, and Luis Khan for Venice have been used to discuss the compatibility between the architecture of the city and new styles, highlighting the political and ideological positions behind their refusal. Finally, the long and complex process for realising the Bridge of the Constitution, which led to the bankruptcy of construction

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Canaletto, Capriccio, oil on canvas, 1756-1759

Ponte della Costituzione, Venice, 2008

BRI D GI N G WI TH OR W IT H OU T BRIDG ES

companies, serious engineering problems, and tripling of the costs, has even been compared to the mysterious curse that affects some Venetian architectures. The complexity of the debate about the 4th bridge on the Grand Canal somehow reveals the double nature of the bridge. By definition, the bridge is ‘a structure carrying a road, path, railway, etc. across a river, road, or other obstacle’, as well as ‘something intended to reconcile or connect two seemingly incompatible things’, capable of ‘making [a difference between two groups] smaller or less significant’. Therefore, the bridge is at the same time one of the fundamental architectural-engineering objects of all times and a powerful figure that carries rich additional meanings. On the one hand, as Ludwig Hilberseimer claimed, when designing bridges it is impossible any kind of formalism, because the aspect of a bridge is strongly influenced by the design requirements and its formal elements can immediately be identified with the construction: ‘[I]n no other construction the dependence of the shape to the structure and calculation is so evident (1927).’ Similarly, the reason Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was fascinated by the simplicity of the Brooklyn Bridge of New York was its ability to go straight to the goal. In that sense, bridges are perhaps the most eloquent architectural objects in which form and function coincide, with practical problems being solved through necessary solutions. On the other hand, as Alberto Cassani wrote in Le figure del ponte: simbolo e architettura (2014), historically, the bridge is the architectural form that has perhaps embedded the most symbolic and metaphorical meanings. ‘The bridge becomes a concrete metaphor to overcome, beyond the game of appearances, the rhetoric antinomy between imagination and reason’ (Crotti, 1981). There is a sort of ‘availability’ within the idea of the bridge in accommodating different functions and meanings (Gregotti, 1991). Bridges can be seen as objects that are able to resignify places and societies or lead into another dimension,

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both physically and virtually. The visionary bridges designed by Étienne-Louis Boullée, like the Pont Louis XVI, the varied ones of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, or the ones painted by Paul Klee, for example, are, in that sense, capable of rendering a different reality or emphasising separation rather than conjunction. In a more allegorical sense, the spiritual rather than the material emphasis on the interplay between connecting and dividing can be found in the Brion family tomb in San Vito d’Altivole (Treviso, Italy), designed by Carlo Scarpa. In it, concrete slabs apparently flowing on the surface of water stop just a step away from the destination (a pavilion). ‘[T]he bridge is an interrupted bridge’ (Cassani, 2014), with the gap signifying the impossibility of overcoming death. In both cases, whether someone would privilege one interpretation over the other, the bridge can be seen as a ‘subversive’ form against the established natural order of the world. It joins what is separate by nature, as highlighted by Georg Simmel in his essay ‘Bridge and Door’ (1909). In that sense, the ‘challenge’ of the bridge reveals its ‘sacrilegious’, ‘irreverent’ character. According to a traditional religious concept, like any other human construction, ‘it is a fundamental danger that accompanies the bridge, a constitutive danger, with which it must continually confront’ (Biraghi, 2015). However, according to that description, the nature of the bridge should not be interpreted as negative. On the contrary, the challenge offered by that form portrays the constant human attempt to overcome their own limits as well as existing problems and obstacles, both physical and non-physical, social and cultural, with permanent or temporary solutions. Thus, bridging is an action that can be translated into multiple outputs, of which a physical bridge connecting two points to overcome a gap is only one of the numerous forms that such a figure can assume.

BRI D GI N G WI TH OR W IT H OU T BRIDG ES

The taxonomy of examples that can respond to those challenges and be a source of inspiration for new solutions is ample, ranging from historical to contemporary projects and differing in type: from lift-bridges to inhabited bridges (Ponte Vecchio in Florence; the Manhattan of Raymond Hood; the bridges of Le Corbusier and Hugh Ferriss), from fragile footbridges to iconic massive ones (the Tower Bridge in London, the Golden Gate in San Francisco), from portable, movable, temporary bridges (the Bailey truss bridge, the Millennium Bridge in Gateshead, Redentore boats bridge in Venice) to highly symbolic interventions (the reconstruction of the Ottoman bridge of Mostar). Following the described spirit or approach and using a wide range of references, students from different backgrounds and contexts participating in the International Master Class ‘Bridges 2015’ worked on some of the most urgent spatial and social fractures currently existing in Brussels and imagined both physical and non-physical ways to bridge them.

B R ID G ES

‘BRIDGES’ – OR THE ART OF TRICKERY S tefa n Be n d i ks a n d A g la é e D e g ro s

Not unlike many European and global metropolises, Brussels must deal with a number of heavy ‘fractures’ within the urban tissue. From heavy infrastructure to large complexes, many entities tend to divide the territory and generate or, at least, perpetuate important socioeconomic inequalities. The approach of the master class addressed these fractures by designing ‘bridges’, thereby focusing less on the technical aspect of the connection and more on the potentials of the compounds and reimagining new public spaces intervening in some of the key socioeconomic nodes of Brussels. We invited the participants of the master class to explore two ways of understanding the notion of ‘bridges’: on the one hand, in a spatial way, by simply bridging the fracture, and on the other hand, in relation to time, by bridging a place through a project toward an envisioned future of the city. The past is the divided city inherited from the industrial age: massive infrastructures, zoning urbanism, and social segregation. The future is a city that mixes infrastructure and building fabric, living, working (producing), and recreating to create space for social inclusion. To reach this future, we must ‘reconnect’. However, we might not need to reproduce the methods of the past, using huge infrastructures. Rather, we should ‘recycle’, using the potentials already in existence to transform the city. To do so, we need a profound understanding not only of the urban fabric but also of the existing systems behind it.

B R ID G ES

We suggested looking into Certeau’s ‘Art of Trickery’ to create new smart links, not from scratch, but anchored in the existing situation, creating maximum effect with minimal means. Reconnecting beyond the spatial also requires a work of collaboration with inhabitants, institutions, and other relevant actors: an urbanism of reflection in which a project is tested in the field with the actual users. The specific spatial, political, administrative, and budgetary situation in Brussels underscores the necessity to think about different ways of intervening in the city. Rather than trying to realise the ideal image of a top-down master plan as quickly as possible, the solution might be to accept and cherish the gradual transition of urban spaces. This approach is also more suited to having inhabitants, users, entrepreneurs, and all kinds of private and public organisations actively participate in the transformation of a given territory instead of ‘undergoing’ a project. Therefore, the methodology proposed during the master class aimed at exploring a transitory approach in urban planning by working on a number of specific sites in Brussels, each with a specific ‘fracture’ to bridge: Weststation in Molenbeek is an unused and largely inaccessible wasteland, divided by a railway and hosting one of the most important nodes in the city’s metro network. It separates an old industrial area, a densely populated 20th-century neighbourhood, new urban developments, and green spaces. Quai Demets, along the Brussels Canal in Anderlecht, has been hit hard by the deindustrialisation process since the 1970s. The site has developed in a chaotic and uncoordinated way. A slaughterhouse, a university college, large-scale retail, housing, and a metro stop appeared on both sides of the waterway, without being connected to each other. The demolition of the Reyers viaduct and abandonment of the plan to build a tunnel hundreds of meters away enabled the transformation of an urban freeway into a boulevard. However, the road and two busy crossroads still

‘BRI D GES’ – OR T H E A RT OF T RIC KE RY

separate a residential neighbourhood from the Brussels media pole that will soon appear to its east. The bridge over the canal at Sainctelette constitutes a complex intersection between the ring road and a major access road, situated within a densely populated area with office blocks, a theatre, and the Citroen building, the reconversion of which is currently the object of an important political debate. We suggested a methodology comprising the following steps to work on these sites in an unusually speedy way because it belongs in a master class: – Reflecting on the different interpretations of ‘bridges’, gathering references, building a theoretical framework, discussing within groups, and building a body of thought concerning the concept of bridges. – Using this reflexion, formulating a hypothesis for the concerned site. – Testing this hypothesis in the field in the form of an intervention and documenting and assessing this intervention. – Developing a transition plan for ‘building a bridge’. This process led to a ‘hands-on’ reflexion about the various ways of building bridges in a spatially, economically, and socially fragmented metropolis like Brussels. The aim was to explore research–and-design methods beyond the rather static master plan. Remarkably, most of the projects interpreted the theme of ‘bridges’ in a predominantly nontechnical manner, making use of a number of social or spatial interventions on site. The participants were surprisingly at ease with working in the field and interacting with the people on the locations. According to an instant diagnosis and a series of self-invented actions in the field, they were contacting the inhabitants and determining their everyday troubles. This research resulted in proposals for site-specific ‘transition plans’ comprised of short- and long-term interventions for the sites.

B R ID G ES

‘BRI D GES’ – OR T H E A RT OF T RIC KE RY

However, the actual interventions on the sites and the proposed designs were not the only relevant outcomes of the master class. In working on them, the students questioned en passant the traditional role of the planner and architect as the omniscient and omnipotent mastermind behind the transformation of the city. The rather incremental, small-scale, and non-physical character of the proposed interventions made the students reflect about the necessary means to actually change the severe fractures they encountered in the city. Their experience showed them the project required architects and planners who could deal with both: establishing resilient, well thought-through structures and creatively and informally making use of them. One of these abilities alone is not enough for working on the cities of the future. We would like to thank the participants of the master class and the many tutors of the different universities for daring to work with us on and in these distressed places of Brussels, and we invite the readers to discover the tricks they proposed to overcome the different fractures in Brussels. Image Diagram: ‘Transition Plan Brialmont’ The proposal for the Brialmont Park included an incremental process to turn an infrastructural wasteland along the ring road of Antwerp into a dynamic park for the neighbourhood and the city. The proposed ‘transition plan’ works with mock-ups co-produced by local stakeholders, associations, and administrations. © Artgineering, Arcadis

‘Construction site Park Belle Vue’ For the project Park Belle-Vue in Leuven, we would reuse the empty space along the railway tracks for an urban park and a cycle highway that connects the main station, nature, and recreational areas, schools, and so on. The design was developed in close collaboration with the inhabitants and will be realised in several steps. © Artgineering, H+N+S, ARA

B R ID G ES

PROPOSALS

PR OPO SA LS

1. W EST STAT I O N 2 . Q UA I D E M E TS 3. REYERS 4 . P L AC E SA I N CT E L E T T E

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S I TE 1 W EST STAT ION

TUTORS

G RO U P A

G RO U P B

YA N N I CK VA N HA E L E N

P E RE EST Ã&#x2030; V E Z P IORNO

OA NA A P E T RA L E

FA BI O VA N I N

U E M U RA H A RU KA

M A RC O CA RRA RO

SE BAST IA N W E INDAU E R

A NG E L CA RT INE Z

NIC OL AS W ICA RT

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 1: WEST STATION

WEST STATION – GARE DE L’OUEST: RAILWAY CROSSING Fa b i o Va n i n

The West Station area represents a very large barrier in one of the most densely populated neighbourhoods of Brussels; at the same time, it holds today a high potential for mixeduse and transit-oriented development. Located on a dense infrastructural crossing point about one kilometre away from the city centre, the site is one of the most strategic locations within the Canal area, where various priority poles are located. Moreover, the area – a rectangle of approximately 900 by 100 meters oriented NE-SW along the railway line – is also a Regional Interest Zone (RIZ) in the PRAS, making it one of the top locations on the agenda of the Brussels Metropolitan Region. However, the importance of the West Station is not recent. At the cross-connection point of the actual trainmetro station, there was a route crossing the site since the time of Ferraris (1777). The trajectory of that path had guided the gradual occupation of the wet landscape of this territory, but the 19th century acceleration of urbanisation and industrialisation on the western side of the city led to increased land reclamation. While industrialisation along the canal continued, the problem of the missing connection between the North and South Stations became an urgent matter. In 1871, a western railway bypass was begun, and soon after the opening of West Station it began to play an important role with Delhaize and other key companies deciding to settle there. Consequently, the industrial identity of the area reinforced, and in 1888, when the new city’s abattoir was moved next

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 1: WEST STATION

to the canal, the zone became an efficient pole of goods exchange. Until the second half of the 20th century, the urbanisation process had densified the area, exceeding the limit of the western railway. After the Second World War, the exemplary Marie José neighbourhood was built, together with new social housing and parks. However, during the last decades, the process of deindustrialisation of the area and the rapid migration caused an important social change in the surroundings of West Station. In the 1990s, new investments led to the redevelopment of the West Railway Station as a multimodal node while the peripheral urbanisation continued and the site of the station itself remained locked out as a massive fracture in the urban tissue. In 2015, the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region approved the study by the ADT-ATO that included a diagnosis with recommendations for the future development of the site and tests of first development scenarios emphasising the gradual re-appropriation of the site. That first development vision has been a key reference for the research of design investigations conducted within the frame of the master class ‘Bridges’. It aimed at furthering the ongoing discussion, taking in account also the larger area in terms of the various projects in the wider Canal zone and the ongoing spatial policy visions in the Brussels capital region. Moreover, a series of important issues have been proposed as a starting point, given the series of challenges the area of West Station faces, especially in terms of physical as well as social fragmentation. First, West Station is a future station on the Regional Express Train Network and, to a certain extent, an existing transport hub already very accessible (via metro lines 1, 2, 5, and 6) on a regional and subregional scale, with plans to improve the station’s connectivity even further. At the same time, the metro and rail tracks represent physical barriers because they run lower than street level, cutting the neighbourhood in two parts, with few existing crossings.

WEST STATI ON – G A RE DE L’ OU EST : RA ILWAY C ROSSING

Similarly, the land by the station consists of vacant space owned by semipublic authorities (Region, infrabel) which has room for mixed developments while being part of the metropolitan landscape. Secondly, the area has the potential to address questions of integration in a densely inhabited area, an area with a very young population and high levels of unemployment. It is one of the areas in Brussels with a large spatial and social mismatch between living and working conditions. The lack of public spaces and basic facilities, such as educational spaces for all ages (crèches, elementary schools, professional schools, etc.), and the need for new dwellings on a regional scale (with 800 dwellings on this site desired) strongly address the question of sociospatial integration. However, it is an area that holds a great potential to reduce this mismatch, given its potentially very good connectivity and available space to develop new mixed-use activities. Starting from these key issues, students worked on the role that ‘bridging the gap’ over the West Station site – both physically and non-physically – can play in the regeneration of the area and in the development of an intermodal (metrotrain) hub. Different proposals have addressed overcoming the spatial fracture created by the infrastructures, reconnecting the different building patterns of the area and intensifying the uses within the existing fabric. They started with identifying specific problems, such as the perception of insecurity or the features of the existing fences around the site, translating those guiding themes into concrete solutions framed according to a transitional plan. The results were focused on the possibility of an effective integration within the metropolitan landscape of Brussels. They are meant to be specific design projects and strategies that can be discussed among researchers, policy makers, and public authorities as catalysts that can bring awareness to concrete solutions.

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 1: WEST STATION

G ROUP A:

ACTIVE BORDERS Pere Estévez Pi o r n o, U e mu ra H a ru ka , S e b a st i a n We i n d au e r, N i c o la s Wi c a r t

The project site extends on both sides of a train track for approximately one kilometre. Currently, a wasteland of a rectangular shape extends from north to south, from the West Station train station to the Ossegem metro station, including the Beekkant metro station. The site is characterised by various types of fences, either artificial or natural, that restrain visual and physical connections from one side to the other. Although the rail could be read as the primary barrier, in this case, the fracture can be considered to be the large wasteland surrounding it. When analysing the site, it became evident the three existing paths that allow a physical connection are, in fact, incapable of overcoming the fracture in a holistic way. Indeed, the bridges are used but do not address any specific issue or serve any specific function. Therefore, to ‘bridge’ that space, it would be more strategic to qualify and activate the void, the fracture, rather than the existing connections. The first on-site action was to physically occupy the void behind the fences to attract the neighbours’ attention to the existing unused space. From this operation, inside the fracture, they saw the site’s existing qualities and met with inhabitants. Those impressions and discussions with locals indicated an important lack of public space in the area, with the site possibly

being the ideal location to promote and create new ones. In an attempt to be as realistic as possible, different points of view have been considered, including those of the architect, the real estate developer, the owner, and so on. From the landlord’s point of view, public space would not be profitable enough, so the project might never come to fruition. Therefore, the proposal focuses on the development of qualitative public spaces in four strategic locations and leaves the remaining area open for further public or private development. To implement such interventions on the site, a two-phase proposal was designed. The first step would be to enhance the existing pathway around the fracture by creating a new shortcut between Beekant and Gare de l’Ouest. Then, by developing visual connections and the aforementioned new public spaces, people might be attracted to the former wasteland. That is, this project would activate the site and give meaning to the existing bridges, ultimately ‘bridging’ the fracture.

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 1: WEST STATION

The site is expanding from Brussels West Station to Ossegem Metro Station and the various borders surrounding it often generate inaccessible interstitial spaces.

GROU P A : ACTI VE BORDE RS

The undertaken â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;field actionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, intended to activate the unused space by investing in it as a public plaza in order to interact with the local population. It enriched the design process by revealing the inherent qualities of the research area and fuelled it with testimonials.

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 1: WEST STATION

GROU P A : ACTI VE BORDE RS

B1 A1

1 What to Bridge? Bridge the urban void. 2 How to Bridge? Bridge through the activation of the unused areas.

The first step was to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;energiseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; the borders of the site by enhancing the existing pedestrian areas and adding a new path connection West Station to Beekant. The architectural interventions (framed here in yellow) are located in strategic points and aim to act as magnets that will eventually enhance the the overall quality of the urban space and enable further qualitative development.

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 1: WEST STATION

Activity / density map: existing situation.

2015 Unused void

2020 Space activation

GROU P A : ACTI VE BORDE RS

Activity / density map: projected situation

2030 Qualitative development

Crossing / Opening Border / Fence

Placing program public and intimate places

Linking levels, activation of surfaces A

A’

B’

Foodplace

School

Public and intimate spaces

Existing program: School Public Facility Workshops Services Foodmarket Restaurant / Bar

The variety of borders allows a diversity of spatial typologies that highlight the potentials of the existing landscape.

Due to their strategic location, the four interventions act as social magnets and generate interaction and attention around key areas of the research site.

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 1: WEST STATION

GROU P A : ACTI VE BORDE RS

SECTION AA

SECTION BB

Phase 1

Phase 2 Phase 2

A’

B’

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 1: WEST STATION

G ROUP B:

A NEW CENTRALITY O a n a A p et ra le, M a rc o C a rra ro, A n ge l C a r t i n ez

The area between Brussels’ West Station and the Ossegem metro station is divided into two neighbourhoods by various barriers, such as fences surrounding the site, the topography, and the unmaintained green areas. These create a physical and a very strong visual fracture between the west and east sides of the district. Furthermore, the different building typologies and the lack of a clear program or function create a palpable disconnection between the two sides. The project area is strategically placed and defined by the centrality of the West Station, emphasising its derelict state. Next to the only existing bridge, two forgotten public places are situated on the border of the previously mentioned barriers, framing the empty central space we consider capable of connecting the eastern side to the western side. Beginning from the need to break through the visibility issue, initiating this project relies on quick, low cost but effective interventions that should help overcome not only the local disconnection but also the disconnection from the rest of the city. First, the proposal addresses the current bridge situation and expands accessibility by adding elevators to increase the flow of people and introduce the possibility of cyclists using this connection. By elongating

the existing train platform and raising the street level to the height of the pedestrian sidewalk, the hierarchy of the street will be reshaped. The second step of the intervention is to restore and open up the area on both sides to create new open spaces and emphasise the visual link. The strategic use of light would create new urban spaces and render access to them easier and more appealing. Further actions would include revitalising the vacant lot with specific functions to activate the site. Last and very important, the public space could be defined even more by adding ‘follow-up’ functions, adapted to the neighbourhood’s needs, such as social facilities, playgrounds, and sports and education centres. Thus, the new central spot would become an attractive meeting point and set the standard for future transformations and projects.

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 1: WEST STATION

Current situation where fences surrounding the site, the topography, and the unmaintained green areas form strong barriers.

GROU P B: A N EW C E NT RA L IT Y

Through ‘field action’ the group studied the atmosphere of the site at night to analyse barriers and understand how to break through them. Placing LED portable lights in different spots it was possible to test people’s reactions and behaviours and the possibility to overcome barriers. Moreover, the use of pictures placed on certain barriers created visual connections suggesting the need of openings.

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 1: WEST STATION

Lack of connections

The necessity of a new centrality

The area represents a possible meeting point not only for the neighbourhood, but also for the rest of the city. By creating a connection between the two sides of the research area we are offering a system that can work as a catalyser for future urban transformations.

GROU P B: A N EW C E NT RA L IT Y

Tension (a visual bridge)

Attraction (a system bridge)

By expanding the urban spaces and opening them up for various public facilities we create a strong bond between the two neighbourhoods. This link will be furthermore intensified over time, emphasised by the urban landscape and the use of light, in order to better define public spaces.

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 1: WEST STATION

GROU P B: A N EW C E NT RA L IT Y

1. The first intervention is enhancing the accessibility of the existing bridge by adding elevators. The current train platforms are then elongated and lifted to the height of the pedestrian sidewalk in order to redefine the public space. 2. The second intervention focuses on cleaning and opening up the area by partially removing the barriers and creating more visibility on both sides of the station. With the appropriate use of light new public spaces are created between the two neighbourhoods. 3. The third phase consist in redesigning the existing bridge and creating a new expanded platform for the future connection. Meanwhile the vacant buildings are getting revitalised through the addition of various functions. 4. The fourth and last intervention would imply the addition of functions adapted to local needs, such as social facilities, playgrounds, sports and education centres.

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Structural details of the proposed bridge. Axonometric view of the proposal.

GROU P B: A N EW C E NT RA L IT Y 65

SIT E 1: WEST STATION

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S I TE 2 D E ME TS

TUTORS

G RO U P A

G RO U P B

A N D REA BORTO LOT T I

LU DM IL A FU ST E R A RION

FRA NC ESC O D’AU RE LLO

MI CHA EL RYCKE WA E RT

M A RG OT G AU T IE R

T U GYA N E RT Ü RK

KA E ONOYA M A

C H E N PA N

TA M A RA T Ü RE M IS

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 2: DE METS

QUAI DEMEDTS, QUAI DE L’INDUSTRIE – CROSSING WATER M i ch a e l Ryckewa e r t , A n d re a Bo r to lot t i

The Canal is a most distinctive and hybrid body of water in Brussels. Backbone of Brussels’ historic industrial development, it continues to play a role in the trans-European canal network. At the level of the capital region, the Port of Brussels continues to exploit it as an important logistic infrastructure. At the same time, the waterway is at the centre of an urban renewal strategy that seeks to redefine the Canal area as ‘the heart of Brussels’. Its logistic function, the narrowness of its section, and the distance between the water surface and the quays prevent any conventional ‘waterfront development’ paradigm, in particular in the more densely developed central section of its trajectory through the city. Today, the Canal as a water body is almost absent from urban experience, in particular in the section south of the Porte de Ninove lock system. Its presence embodies an important fracture between the left and right bank areas of Anderlecht, making it difficult to envision it as a meaningful public space for the central Canal area. How to cross the water thus becomes a key challenge along this Canal section and, in particular, for the site centred on Quai de l’Industrie and Quai Demets in Anderlecht. The section is framed between two difficult and traffic-dominated crossings: the railroad and the Chaussée de Mons in the south and the Ropsy Chaudron bridge and Delacroix metro station in the north. The areas on either side of the Canal are complex and fragmented spaces typical of the post-industrial city.

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 2: DE METS

On the east bank, the abbattoirs are still active as an urban slaughterhouse while the operations have diversified into a food cluster, with the largest food market in the city attracting enormous crowds (making Delacroix the busiest metro stop in the city). The site will further develop and open up to the city along the lines of a master plan under development with EU support. In sharp contrast, Erasmus University College works as a completely isolated campus without any interaction with its surroundings. Students come and go via an unattractive and unsafe connection along the narrow quays to the metro stop. A brand new public housing complex for middle-income groups is also in a rather isolated situation on this side of the water. On the west bank, the former productive and cogenerative activities (public transport depot and workshops, electricity station) remain central in the ongoing but rather haphazard redesign of the area. The Port Sud centre is meant to attract new start-ups while the Capital region is developing an Ecopôle for reuse and recycling of waste. These new projects facing the Canal intermingle with existing activities facing the Rue Birmingham, such as the public transport company’s depot and a cluster of commercial buildings, giving a distinctly suburban – and dystopic – feel to this part of the city. Here, the terrain also rises several meters above the Canal or, more precisely, the Senne River Valley in which the Canal was dug, creating a ‘cornice’. Indeed, the Rue Birmingham offers elevated vantage points facing the opposing ‘cornice’ of the east Senne Valley flank, dominated by the Palace of Justice, enhancing the feeling of ‘absence’ of the Canal. The primary challenge is to conceive the immediate connection between the opposing banks but, more importantly, to create a network of public spaces to tie the urban fragments on both quays together. Important to note is the heritage value of some of these fragments, such as the gigantic cast iron and glass roof of the Abbattoirs and the industrial buildings that will be occupied by Port

QUA I D EMEDTS, QUA I DE L’ INDU ST RIE – C ROSSING WAT E R

Sud and the Ecopôle. From a broader perspective, the question is how these new ‘bridges’ will establishes new trajectories, connecting the outer neighbourhoods of Anderlecht and the area around the West Station with the Cureghem neighbourhood and on to the South Station. For this reason, the projects for the site take into account such issues as flow of people and goods, investigating solutions to enhance both living and production activities. The first project is focused on the temporality and multiplicity of ‘bridging water’ in this area. Starting from an analysis of the different activities that must be linked and the variations over time of these links – day-night, weekdays-weekends, market days-school days – , the project proposal includes a series of temporary interventions and a movable bridge that can serve as an activity platform. The bridge over the Canal enables new material and social connections, with new practices and services along its sides. The second project starts from a modal shift in transportation for people and goods, with regards to the closest agricultural areas and sources of fresh food production and a possible alternative delivery system to the food market. Rail-based goods transport and a relocation of car parking would liberate important spaces in the area that can be reprogrammed. These new programs would enliven the area and create new public trajectories, reconnecting both Canal banks, each with its own distinct character.

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 2: DE METS

G ROUP A:

BRIDGE SHARING M a rgot G au t i e r, Ka e O n oya ma , Ta ma ra Tü re mi s

During the field trip in and around the Abattoir (slaughterhouse), we realised the different functions existing along the Canal materialised in dedicated buildings. This separation of activities also apparently separates people, thus creating a very pronounced social gap. The lack of connection with the upper side of the site and the poorly defined spaces on both sides create a feeling of insecurity, where people are unlikely to stay. While the need of a physical bridge is obvious, we decided to investigate the potential of a ‘social bridge’. Thus, the intervention consisted of a set of wired ‘cup phones’ that allowed people to communicate from one bank of the Canal to the other. The experience successfully managed to spur deep interest and collaboration from the locals and made us realise that, indeed, a physical as well as a social bridge should be considered. The following proposal is an intervention that adapts to the change of activity during the week. To understand when and where a physical or a social bridge would be needed, a timetable has been created showing the usage of different functions along the Canal. According to this timetable, the appropriate modules appear when they are most needed. For example, when the area is used for entertainment, the modules can combined and create an extended function, such as an open-air

cinema, that will fit with the environment. To create such flexibility, the device takes the form of a crane that can move on rails, placed along the Canal. This crane would be a distributor; it would arrange the modules for different needs and move them vertically to allow ships to pass through. Each crane could operate in a radius of 200 metres along the Canal and could store up to a maximum of six platforms. The system could be operated and maintained by the already existing transportation factory and the port of Brussels and act as a microorganism along the Canal area. Activating the Canal with this system would create a new mobility axis connecting the metro station with the Canal’s banks. A second major axis would connect the Abattoir and universities to the lower side of the site, removing physical barriers, activating empty spaces, and creating a new entrance to the slaughterhouse. Finally, a second crane could be added to extend the system on both sides of the Canal and transform the empty spaces. ‘Bridge sharing’ is a flexible form of connection that should react spontaneously to its direct environment, giving the opportunity to intervene in the city in a new, flexible, and adaptive manner.

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 2: DE METS

Photographs showing how the different functions existing along the Canal materialise in dedicated areas. This separation of activities also separates people creating a very pronounced social gap.

GROU P A : BRI D G E SH A RING

The ‘field action’ consisted of a set of wired ‘cup phones’ that allowed people to communicate from one bank of the Canal to the other. The experience spurred deep interest and collaboration from local people and suggested that, a physical as well as a social bridge should be considered.

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 2: DE METS

GROU P A : BRI D G E SH A RING

2020

Separation of activity

2030

M abattoir universitâ&#x20AC;&#x2030;/â&#x20AC;&#x2030;fablab education

Existing axes

offices

New axes

southport

housing transport industry

Locations add-ons

storage entertainment centre

Free corner

Morphological analysis of the tissue around Abattoir and proposed new connections. From the first diagram it can be seen that functions are clearly divided and rarely overlap. From the second we consider the important empty spaces along the canal and propose to connect them clearly with the surrounding network of streets.

Potential evolution of the site in 2020 and 2030.

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SIT E 2: DE METS

GROU P A : BRI D G E SH A RING

platform moduls: light, cost efficient, sustainable

material platforms: glassfiber-reforced polymers

2.1 x 25m

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY material guardrail: aluminium residents ] different generations and cultures fablab users + staff industry + working spaces clients + staff educational institutions students + tutors commercial institutions clients + staff residents ] different generations and cultures market fablab users + staff MONDAY

FRIDAY

customers + sellers + thursday ‘party people’

THUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY industry + working spaces clients + staff

SATURDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

educational institutions students + tutors commercial institutions clients + staff market MONDAY

THUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

customers + sellers + thursday ‘party people’

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

building bridges + plattforms

SUNDAY day time 06am-06pm night time 06am-06pm day time + night time 1. south port 2. church 3. commerce 4. storage + industry 5. entertainment centre 6. service 7. housing 8. metro 9. office 10. fablab 11. education 12. university 13. abattoir

1. 2. 3. 4.

Day by day activities in and around the Abattoir. Principal users by day of the week. Proposed alternatives for each typology of building and function. Structural detail of the proposed intervention.

building bridges + plattforms

step 1 : new structures

reorganisation of empty buildings + empty corners

construction of new axes + ways

connecting existing green spaces with football ground + the new bridge improving + activation of the neighbourhood

enlargement public space on north-western side of canal construction of new structures + housing along the canal

use of the new connection between the watersides

change of functions + structures

new functions attract students to spend free time here

students move there + building of halls

reorganisation of empty buildings + empty corners new entrance location + parking situation connecting existing green spaces with football ground + the new bridge step 2: early expected impacts improving + activation of the neighbourhood

addition of new buildings construction of new axes + ways + reorganisation of the market place enlargement public space on north-western side of canal step 3: expected longterm impacts and structures construction of new structures + housing along the canal

use of the new connection between the watersides

change of functions + structures

new functions attract students to spend free time here

students move there + building of halls

new entrance location + parking situation

addition of new buildings + reorganisation of the market place

step 2: early expected impacts

step 3: expected longterm impacts and structures

housing

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SIT E 2: DE METS

GROU P A : BRI D G E SH A RING

scenario 02 daytime

scenario 01 daytime

cinema

entertainment center

university

industry

market

office

commerce

fablab

housing

south port

scenario 01 nighttime

scenario 02 nighttime

commerce

entertainment center

cinema

market

housing

Axonometric drawings showing the potential flexibility and uses of the proposal by day and by night. commerce

office

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 2: DE METS

G ROUP B:

LINKING CHARACTERS Fra n c e sc o D’au re llo, Tu g ya n E r t ü r k , C h e n Pa n

The proposed design starts from the opportunities and challenges the Abattoir market presents. As one of the most important markets in Brussels, the Abattoir attracts a large number of people from all over the city during market days but brings heavy traffic to the surrounding area. However, across the Canal, a totally different character can be found: buildings largely occupied by transportation companies, fast traffic lanes, fragmented public spaces, and isolated communities, totally disconnected from the nearby vivid market. Based on on-site observations, the proposal indicates creating a qualitative public space around the Abattoir area and reducing heavy traffic. Furthermore, with more accessibility and building functions freed from cars, the project tries to link both sides of the Canal, manipulating the activities and using already existing ones around it. The proposed strategy focuses largely on two undeniably related aspects: mobility and land use. The traffic analysis raised the question of whether it is possible to keep most of the cars and trucks outside of this area and transport goods to the market through alternative modes of transport, such as rail, tram, or metro. An idea about mobility arose from the field trip, considering different city scales to investigate the coherence of the proposal. The

feasibility of using a different mode of goods transportation was explored on different scales to reduce car and truck traffic in the area and gradually develop a diffuse pedestrian area that, in turn, would contribute to a better quality of public space. Improving public space and releasing it from vehicle-related functions would allow for different kinds of programs to make both sides of the Canal function as a whole. Based on the site’s current driving forces – the market, the university, and the logistic facilities – , the proposal includes adding ‘activity boxes’ and linking the currently separated functions. Finally, from an architectural standpoint, a design exploration was conducted to adapt the buildings to their proposed programs. According to the small-scale urban fabric, the proposal is to transform the existing buildings in a moderate way with ad hoc modifications and renovations, striving to keep the small-scale character of the area while connecting it to the larger city network.

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 2: DE METS

The Abattoir market attracts people from all over Brussels but also brings heavy traffic pressure to the area. As a consequence, fast traffic lanes further separate the Abattoir area from its surroundings and the canal.

GROU P B: LI N KI NG C H A RACT E RS

The filed action consisted in testing the capacity of public transport in carrying goods (fruit and vegetables) from the productive landscape in the outskirts of Brussels to the Abbatoir.

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SIT E 2: DE METS

problems and goals

GROU P B: LI N KI NG C H A RACT E RS

mobility – current situation

logistic

commercial

resident

market college market

cars & trucks

resident

isolated functions

logistic

commercial

resident

market college market

public space with better quality

resident

linked functions from both sides

roads space railway route metro line metro stations delacroix / clemenceau parking areas car functional base buildings (logistics, machanics, storage)

The major issues related to the Abattoir area are twofold: 1. The flows of trucks and cars gathered around decrease the overall space quality. 2. The neighbourhoods on either sides of the canal are isolated from one another.

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 2: DE METS

GROU P B: LI N KING C H A RACT E RS

metro storage

logistics

commercial

recycling

storage

university food process abattoir (market)

parking

metro

parking

class

metro storage

logistics

storage

class

commercial

market

manufacture

recycling

class

manufacture

2 housing

before 1. Delacrois metro station 2. recycling station 3. heating installer 4. commecrial center 5. storage 6. MIVB / STIB 7. bending tracks factory 8. church cluster 9. agency & furniture shop 10. industry 11. educational center 12. Erasmus school 13. old concessionaire 14. old concessionaire 15. slaughterhouse 16. abattoir 17. market

housing

university food process class

abattoir (market)

class

parking

metro

parking

class

metro storage

logistics

class

commercial

market

storage

manufacture

recycling

class

manufacture

3 housing

housing

university food process class class

abattoir (market)

metro

3. The proposal suggests to expand the market and put it in relation with the local actors, specifically the university and manufactures. Its connection with the university will promote cooking and selling classes while through the manufacturing process, it is expected to create jobs for the local communities.

after 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26.

Delacrois metro station recycling station heating installer commecrial center storage MIVB / STIB bending tracks factory church cluster agency & furniture shop industry educational center Erasmus school parking classrooms slaughterhouse abattoir market bar cooking school ateliers students residence manufacture of processed products kiosk housing textile factory cooking labs

New programs are added in a soft way to connect the existing functions in a more direct way. The proposal aims in this way to link the neighbourhoods from either sides of the canal and generate flows of people and goods between them.

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 2: DE METS

GROU P B: LI N KI NG C H A RACT E RS

parking lot

square

connecting hall atelier

atelier

manufacturing

classroom

bar

student residence market slaughter house market

main square

add

Program 1. Old buildings are carefully transformed. 2. New constructions are added in relation to the neighbourhood scale. 3. Functions are arranged in order to create interesting synergies.

bite

Axonometric drawing showing the improved public space and the arrangement of functions on both sides of the canal.

bridge

PR OPO SA LS

S I TE 3 R E Y E RS

TUTORS

G RO U P A

G RO U P B

KA N A A RI OKA

M AT T EO DE ROSSI

H E IKE RA A BE

CLA I RE PELGRI MS

BIA NCA G A M ST E R

H E L E NA T RIAS P RATS

A NA M A RIA H E RNA NDE Z

G IE L VA NH OU T T E TOM U RA YO

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 3: RE YERS

REYERS BOULEVARD – ROADCROSSING: MODAL SHIFT AND HIGHWAY DISMANTLING Ka n a A r i o ka , C la i re Pe lg r i ms

Compared to other sites, the case study of the Reyers Boulevard is specific because it was undergoing major transfor-mations during the master class. The actual dismantling of the Reyers viaduct enabled students to directly enter the political debates about mobility infrastructures in the Capital. A M U LT I- LAYERED INFRASTRUCTURE

Located on the northeast plateau of the region, the site constitutes a section of the ‘Seconde Ceinture’, planted with trees along the outer boulevard, envisioned in 1866 by Victor Besme to extend and embellish the city. Build in 1909, the boulevard had undergone major transformations in the late 1960s with the setting of the E5 motorway Brussels-Liège. In the context of the construction of a European highway network in the 1950s, there was a clear Belgian political will to position Brussels as the ‘Occident crossroad’ (‘Carrefour de l’Occident’) within that network. However, instead of leading the highways directly to the core of the city, the choice was made to improve the existing road network. The existing ring boulevards then allowed the connection between interurban highways and radial urban highways located along existing roads or railroads. The all road system was supposed to give equal access to all neighbourhoods in the Capital to take part in the move to lessen urban crowding (desserrement), which could reverse the urban exodus. The Reyers Boulevard as part of the ‘Seconde Ceinture’ was, therefore, transformed into

PR OPO SA LS

SIT E 3: RE YERS

an urban highway and made the connection with the E5, later called E40, the interurban motorway planned in 1964 and built between 1969 and 1973. For this crossroad, the Road Administration within the Department of Public Works projected a multi-layered infrastructure. The E5 turns under the boulevard into symmetric tunnels that lead to the Meiser plaza or the Vergote square. Above this, a viaduct was built in 1970 to ease traffic at the ground level by by-passing the Diamant crossroad. Furthermore, the ramps of the viaduct constitute the roof of a pre-metro station in operation since 1972. This multi-layered design was aimed at eliminating interferences among various types of traffic flow. It achieved the transformation of the boulevard and its public space. ME DIA PAR K

The image of the Reyers site is linked to that of the Belgian state broadcaster (RTB), which was located there at its creation in the 1960s. Situated at the entrance to the E5 and along its outer boulevard, this site was selected based on the modernistic logic of locating major national amenities close to motorway infrastructures to create new peripheral urban centralities. The broadcasting centre developed until the end of the 1970s to form a gigantic and introverted studio and office complex. In the 1980s, locating the Belgian headquarters of Radio Télévision Luxembourgeoise (RTLTVI) close to the RTB bolstered the media-based direction taken by the Reyers site. At the same time, the development of office buildings alongside the entrance to the motorway transformed the residential neighbourhood into a major office centre for Brussels. Following the trend, the purpose of the master plan ‘Mediapark’ developed since 2014 for this site is to create a new media-related centrality through construction of housing, media amenities, schools, and so forth around a new public space, opening the existing park behind the RTB main building.

REYERS BOU LE VA RD – ROA D C ROSSING : MODA L SHI F T AND H IG H WAY DISM A NT L ING

M ODA L S HIFT AND H IG H WAY D ISMANTLING

The urban issue of the site is the transformation of the urban speedway to facilitate local mobility across the boulevard: between the future development and the old inner residential area of the Plasky neighbourhood. Improving remote accessibility, the urban highway constitutes a barrier to local mobility, especially soft mobilities, that must be overcome. At the regional level, there is a clear political will to reinforce the polycentric urbanisation through speed management and intensification of peripheral sites like Reyers. In this context, the Reyers urban highway should become an urban boulevard again. Planned in 2014, the first phase of the viaduct dismantling occurred during the master class, and the final design will be established by 2017. Together with Mediapark and the transformation of the urban section of the interurban highway E40 into a parkway, this project will change the perception of the entrance to the city while offering better accessibility, reducing car traffic, and encouraging soft mobilities in this area. 3D VS. 2D

Translating this ambitious programme into design while adopting a position on the actual dismantling was not an easy task. The two groups both chose to reduce the number of car lanes, with the number of lanes being a matter of traffic in the future of Brussels. They also both tested other configurations than the sidewalk enlargement considered by the authorities. However, their attitudes were exact opposites from the beginning. One group was trying to save the viaduct under demolition and use it as a monument, whereas the other group regarded the dismantling of the viaduct as liberation and tried to re-organise the space. One group chose to design a central flexible space, whereas the other group set up a long plaza in front of Mediapark. One focussed on the vertical intermodality, whereas the other proposed a reflexion on common needs of different mobilities sharing the same surface.

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SIT E 3: RE YERS

The first group focussed on the project early. Its members were able to consider the quality of space they were going to propose and could finalise the project. Even if in their proposal, there was still an opportunity to improve the connection with the new media park. The new island of public space they proposed created a flow in space, not only a visual one from the top level but also a physical connection on the underground level. They chose to reinvent the car infrastructure as a playful topography for pedestrians, a flying ‘rambla’ with a view. In this project, the fact that Diamant square changes dramatically from the status quo merits recognition. By considering the entire city of Brussels, this project could be a more in-depth proposal on an urban scale, transferrable to all other old infrastructures. The second group had in-depth discussion about how to re-organise the traffic. In the end, the idea to design a richer public space, introducing the park-and-ride spots, including one on the site, and reducing the traffic was chosen. This group developed a design with different kinds of traffic, such as trams, cars, bicycles, and pedestrians, coexisting on the ground level instead of on the current three levels. The main point was to make these types of traffic coexist and even interact. They experiment with the idea of ‘shared place’ on a bigger scale, exporting it from the residential avenue to a major mobility infrastructure within the city. Large surfaces of open public space in Brussels are still taken by driving lanes and parking spaces. Returning to a pedestrian friendly space and creating a continuous and seamless ground level public space is a fascinating idea. However, some people would consider the limitation of parking spots and driving lanes a sacrifice. It can be argued that this group should have had more time to enhance the quality of the formal proposal because they dedicated much effort to different types of analyses and considerations in a workshop where results were reached in a limited amount of time. Only a convincing presentation of the superior quality of space would be able to change their attitude.

REYERS BOU LE VA RD – ROA D C ROSSING : MODA L SHI F T AND H IG H WAY DISM A NT L ING

T R A N S FORMATION TO PUBLIC SPACE

Those projects together addressed two important issues about the transformation of urban speedways still too neglected in public debates: first, the heritage of an urban infrastructure and the question of hijacking it and, second, the materiality of efficient connection points for multiple types of mobility in a shared space, far beyond punctual intermodality spaces. We cannot stop questioning the quality of public spaces needed for Brussels, where diverse groups of people live close to each other without interference. There is a definition of an excellent public space: it must be a space where you feel cosy being alone (Fumihiko Maki). In the case of Brussels, such an excellent space would be where each diverse group can spend time simultaneously and comfortably.

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G ROUP A:

STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN M at te o D e Ro ssi , Bi a n c a G a mste r, A n a M a r i a H e r n a n d ez

The first experience on site was an important historical moment for the Reyers area: the demolition of a superimposed elevated fast road, a modernist symbol depicting a city defined by car mobility. At that time, the former flyover was still standing as a partly destroyed ramp. The effect of this element, with its beauty, strongly drove the design proposal toward conserving this moment of change. From our point of view, that viaduct is a defining element in the urban identity of Brussels, situated at one of the highest spots of the city and acting as a gateway, guiding the 12 highway lanes into the inner city. The bordering neighbourhood is divided into a western, largely residential district and the fenced eastern side by the French and Flemish broadcast services and media centres. Future development of this site could incorporate a new media park open to the public, which is planned to be completed by 2030. Regarding the area between Reyers and Meiser – formerly connected by the elevated viaduct – , a new boulevard with expanded pedestrian sidewalks is planned although it follows the same mobility principle in terms of separating traffic flow. The design concept reinterprets the idea of a boulevard in a contemporary way by using site-specific qualities, such as the vertical topography and the currently empty space between the

two sides. The creation of a bridged public space on several levels, with various functions, should change the previous traffic hierarchy. Furthermore, the Reyers site represents just one of similar cases and should be seen as an example when it comes to dealing with the issue of destruction. The proposal addresses how existing infrastructure can and should be reused to maintain its identity while still adapting it to contemporary needs. The project includes two steps of architectural intervention. The first focuses on the connection with the underground public traffic. Simultaneously, the proposal activates the ground floor level by using the space underneath the ramp by designing a new public space with a facade facing the main square. The second step involves the activation of the top level of the ramp by expanding the structure vertically and connecting it with its upper part. With the use of three different kinds of connections – an elevator, an escalator, and artistic stairs – an upward path is created: the stairway to heaven.

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The demolition of the superimposed elevated fast road, a modernist symbol depicting a city defined by car mobility occurred exactly during the exporation of the Reyers area.

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GROU P A : STA I RWAY TO H E AV E N

The bordering neighbourhood is divided into a Western largely residential district and the French and Flemish broadcast services and media centres to the Eastern side. The field action attempted to create unofficial pedestrian pathways in order to bring forth the important lack of pedestrian crossings along the Reyers boulevard.

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GROU P A : STA I RWAY TO H E AV E N

why connecting

300m

<100m 8 8

300m 40

104

changing the hierarchy

slowing down

70 km/h

40 km/h

why in the middle

using site specific qualities

site analysis

The design proposes a contemporary boulevard that takes into account site-specific qualities, such as the topography and the currently empty space. Furthermore, the proposal attempts to change the previous traffic hierarchy through the creation of a bridged public space on several levels, with various functions. Finally, the proposal addresses how existing infrastructure can and should be reused maintaining its identity while still adapting to contemporary needs.

bridging concept

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SIT E 3: RE YERS

2015 (1)

2015 (2)

The project includes two steps of architectural intervention. The first focuses on the connection with the underground public traffic and activates the ground floor level by using the space underneath the ramp through the design of a new public space.

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GROU P A : STA I RWAY TO H E AV E N

2020

2030

The second step involves the activation of the top level of the ramp by expanding the structure vertically and connecting it with its upper part. With the use of three different kinds of connections â&#x20AC;&#x201C; an elevator, an escalator, and artistic stairs â&#x20AC;&#x201C; an upward path is created: the stairway to heaven.

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Axonometric view of the proposed architectural and spatial interverntions.

SIT E 3: RE YERS

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GROU P A : STA I RWAY TO H E AV E N

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Plan of the ground floor.

SIT E 3: RE YERS

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GROU P A : STA I RWAY TO H E AV E N

Plan of the upper level of the ramp and the access to the higher public space.

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G ROUP B:

CONNECTING BY INTERMODALITY He i ke Ra a b e, H e le n a Tr i a s Prat s, G i e l Va n h o u t te, To mu ra Yo

The Reyers site is bordered by the future Mediapark project and residential areas. At this unique connection point, cars are distributed from the highway into the city, and multiple public transport lines merge. However, the spatial separation of these different means of transport creates several physical barriers that severely constrain the pedestrian movement. Indeed, within the 800m distance between the metro and tram stations, Diamant and Meiser, there is only one place for pedestrians to cross the wide street, an uninviting tunnel. We chose this site for our field action because we believe in the equality of all modes of transportation, with every user having the possibility of moving with ease regardless of the mode of transportation. The proposal for the site is to create an intermodal hub to improve the connection of the area of the former boulevard with the neighbourhood. People will be provided with a platform for multimodal private and public transportation exchange. Providing multiple options to achieve a good continuity of all networks of mobility can reinforce the connections with different areas of Brussels. Bringing transportation spatially into the same level has great potential for reaching an equality of transport. It has the advantage that different types of

mobility sharing the same qualities can benefit from the same facilities. The recent destruction of the viaduct offers the opportunity to redistribute space. In different steps in the following years, car lanes should be reduced and shifted to the western side of the boulevard. In turn, the boulevard could become pedestrian, bicycle, and wheelchair friendly as the tunnels of the tram and highway are replaced by a tramline and a connection to the highway on the ground floor. Taking into account the extensive flow of cars arriving on site, it is necessary to plan a car park at the end of the highway to facilitate the connection between the different forms of transportation. By 2040, our design opens space for different modes of transportation. Space will be organised by objects, facilities, and activities for many different groups of users. Thus, this intervention becomes a multi-modal platform that brings together digital and physical networks, providing improved options and alternatives for commuters and residents.

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The spatial separation of the different means of transport existing in the area – cars and public transport – creates several physical barriers that severely constrain the pedestrian movement. Indeed, within the 800m distance between the metro and tram stations, Diamant and Meiser, there is only one place for pedestrians to cross the wide street, an uninviting tunnel.

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GROU P B: CON N ECT ING BY INT E RM ODA L IT Y

For the field action, the ‘uninviting tunnel’ was chosen to show the importance of qualitative pedestrian and slow mobility passages.

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GROU P B: CON N ECT ING BY INT E RM ODA L IT Y

2015

2040

50 20 10 5

P metro tram

SHO

underground tram train prominent road

soft

hard

bicycle route

Analysis of transportation flows around the area of the Reyers boulevard and connection to major points in the city.

The proposal consists in creating an intermodal hub to improve the connection between the area of the former boulevard and the neighbourhood. Bringing transportation spatially into the same level has the advantage that different types of mobility sharing the same qualities can benefit from the same facilities.

11 8

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SIT E 3: RE YERS

2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Reyers Viaduct

Car lanes should gradually be reduced and shifted to the western side of the boulevard. In turn the tunnels of the tram and highway are replaced by a tramline and a connection to the highway on the ground level rendering the boulevard pedestrian and bicycle friendly.

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2020 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; reduction of multilevel transport

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Axonometry of the overall proposal on the site of the former Reyers Viaduct.

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S I TE 4 SA I NCT E L E T T E

TUTORS

G RO U P A

G RO U P B

N A D I A CASA BELL A

JOA N M A RT I E L IAS

BILJA NA NIKOL IC

RI EN VA N D E WA L

M A RIA L EONA RDI

ST E FA N SC H M IDT

BRIG IT

FE DE RIC O TOM ASONI

SC H WA RZ E NBE RG E R

JU RG E N Z A P P E

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SIT E 4: SAINCTELET TE

125

SAINCTELET TE â&#x20AC;&#x201C; MULTIPLE CROSSINGS: THE CLAMP N a d i a C a sa b e lla

Sainctelette has a long history as a crossing point, first as a point of penetration of the Willebroek Canal (15501561) into the medieval city, the Shore Gate, contributing to the urbanisation of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s northwestern part on the Senne floodplain. Near this gate to the north, a promenade was developed along the quay: the Green driveway (Allee Verte). When the city walls were demolished and the new ring boulevards were built on its place (1818-1851), the part linking this Green driveway with the wealthier districts, located in the eastern districts uphill, was the first to be realised. Then a series of key infrastructures followed suit: the construction of the Brussels-Charleroi Canal (1827-1832) and the first railway line between Brussels and Mechelen (1835), whose terminus station was located at the same Green driveway. This station was dedicated to freight from 1846, as the nearby North Station was put into service. It is easy to imagine that industries had a preference for being located along this western part of the city centre, next to the canals, served by the freight line, and close to the guilds that had flourished along the river Senne during former industrialisation waves. This transformation reached farther west when, around the same period, the area around the Small Senne River was reclaimed and allotted. Simultaneously, the northern stretch of the ring boulevards that ended previously at Sainctelette was extended toward the west as the Leopold II boulevard, doubling its length and creating an impressive view, ending with the Koekelberg Basilica, appearing to rise out of a forest.

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Currently, the 50m wide boulevard runs above a tunnel intended for vehicular and metro traffic. The boulevard itself is largely devoted to traffic. Only around Rogier have some attempts been made to ‘tame’ the overwhelming presence of cars in the public space, shrinking to nearly half the surface allocated to private vehicular traffic. Upcoming projects around the Sainctelette crossing, like the new Contemporary Art Museum in the Citroen building at Yser Square, the residential project at Quai des Peniches, or the park at Béco Dock, invite one to look at a wider area than the strict crossing point, incorporating into the study area the nearby projects that will have a definite effect on the volume and type of users traversing the canal at this point. DEFY I N G SI MP L I C I T Y

To introduce the participants of the workshop to the peculiarities of the Sainctelette site, four challenges were identified: a) The urban landscape: The canopy erected at the peak of Rogier can be seen as recognition and exaltation of the strong iconic value this long boulevard has in the urban landscape. Should other elements come to reinforce it at the height of Sainctelette square or its surroundings to mark the presence of the Canal flowing underneath? Along the same lines, should a uniform spatial design of the boulevard be determined (in terms of street profile, furniture, vegetation, etc.), perhaps prolonging the design solution already adopted at Rogier? How can Sainctelette still be understood as the magnificent hinge placed in the folding of the two raised boulevards (despite the oversized gauge of the bridge crossing the canal), overlooking the long line of the Willebroek Canal? b) Programming: How could the surrounding public functions, such as Kaaitheater, the future museum, or even the headquarters of the French Community Administration,

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become magnets of the public space? Currently, they are recessed inside their respective buildings, and nothing in the square indicates the richness on the other side of the canal or the river. To a certain extent, there is an important cultural and leisure component that could become more apparent, even drive the transformation of this place if they could develop a strong presence: a theatre, a disco, restaurants, a museum, indoor climbing facilities, cruise tours, ‘Bruxelles les Bains’, and so on. c) Mobility: Currently, Sainctelette is more of a whirlpool than a simple crossing, mixing very disparate traffic types and somehow managing to sort them out, redirecting them in their desired direction. Of course, this happens at the prize of occupying lots of space, invading neighbouring streets, and opting for a ‘piped’ solution that treats road traffic as top priority and other modes of transport, like bikes or pedestrians, as subsidiary, hence relegated to the edges of the main crossing. We should move beyond the dichotomy ‘yes or no’ of cars and toward more hybrid forms of managing mobility in our cities. The urgency is to envisage how all modes of transport cohabiting by reconsidering the parts they have to play and the ways they will have to interact rather than avoiding each other. d) Water: Besides the water in the Canal, other waters exist as well. There is the water conveyed underground in the form of pipes, cisterns, collectors, combined sewers, and so on. There is the runoff water discharged into the Canal or piped and conveyed elsewhere. There is the wasted water of the sewage network, brought to the treatment plant located to the north in the region. There is the piped fresh water running through the bridge. Finally, there is the culvert of the Senne River, running next to the Canal to Sainctelette. Bridging is about connecting multiple network segments: those that are visible (traffic or people flow) no more than those kept out of sight (water or air quality).

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COM I N G TO GR IPS

One cannot possibly foresee – and even less fully control – what will be the effect of framing in a particular way the questions designers will be confronted with, in this particular case, the designers-participants of the workshop. We framed the issues for the Sainctelette site, and the participants responded with two distinct attitudes. One group acknowledged the question and answered it with the tools and methods designers have been using with success for decades, simultaneously enjoying the ease and confidence such instruments provide. The other group questioned the framework and became entangled in a discursive journey that prevented them from reaching the transformative capacity of design. That is, whereas spatial designs generally are focussed on improving the environmental or living conditions of any given place, the risk is that they are reduced under largely discursive regimes to simply commenting on those conditions. It is always tempting to withdraw some patterns of more general validity from what we witness. In fact, the same typical reactions can be generally identified among spatial designers (be they architects or urban or landscape designers) when facing any brief. Either they will embrace the question, or they will view as crisis. One of my mentors used to recommend we look at how things work, concentrate on how they go together (or not), and imagine how disparate parts can be brought into productive relationships. This approach is as valid today as it was in the past. Now, the reality of our cities seems hardly graspable to the untrained eye and hand. But the designer does not need more but fewer lenses, a bare eye, and hand-to-hand confrontation with reality. However, one caution is noted: Beware the hoarded wealth reality has to offer.

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WHERE IS SAINCTELET TE SQUARE? J o a n M a r t i E li a s, M a r i a Le o n a rd i , Br i g i t S chwa r ze n b e rge r

For the assignment of proposing an urban transition plan for the area of Sainctelette Square, research on the bridge, the neighbouring area, and historic documents revealed interesting facts about the evolution of the spatial situation of the current bridges. Indeed, they underwent several modification phases to end up today as two bridges separated by a void and dominated by car traffic. After reflection on the concept of ‘bridging’, the suggestion was to define the bridge as a place in itself. Indeed, it has the potential to be much more than just a way across the water and become a place of connectivity, continuity, and pause. To investigate people’s interest in this regard, we undertook a field action to test how the vertical dimension of the Sainctelette bridges was perceived. The results have shown that most citizens walking across the bridges are not aware of the existing space around and below them. This finding led to proposing a transition plan for Sainctelette Square consisting of three major steps. Each step described changes in the horizontal movement on top of the bridges, as well as introduction of vertical interventions. In general, the proposal indicated devoting the northern bridge to non-motorised mobility and the southern bridge to car traffic, strongly emphasising vertical connections to water and potential recreational spaces.

The first step included the introduction of a micro-intervention to establish a continuous trail passing under the bridge and along the Canal, with ramps for cyclists and pedestrians to improve north-south crossings. Additionally, the proposal was to close off less frequented streets and merge them with adjacent public spaces, hence creating more continuity of space. Second, the introduction of a safe east-west crossing would connect the two banks and emphasise the qualities of the space. Furthermore, the vacant metro station below the canal would be reactivated, and vertical connections would make the platforms accessible again. Simultaneously, one of the car lanes running beside the void would be closed off to dedicate the area to pedestrians. Finally, the proposal would rearrange the tracks of the existing tram line on the northern bridge and dedicate the bridge to pedestrians. Thus, the distinction between light and motorised traffic is crucial to improving the quality of the public space above the bridge and along the water. Moreover, the connection of the new spaces and the metro station offers the potential to access the Citroen Building – proposed to become a museum – as well as the neighbourhood of Molenbeek with ease. In a long term view, Sainctelette Square and the central bridges would be restored in place, providing a liveable space of connectivity as well as recreation.

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The Sainctelette bridges underwent several modification phases to end up today as two bridges separated by a void and dominated by car traffic.

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To investigate peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interest in a bridge as a place in itself, the undertaken field action tested how the vertical dimension of the Sainctelette bridges was perceived. The results have shown that most citizens walking across the bridges are not aware of the existing space around and below them.

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TOUR & TAXIS

Fractures: Where is Sainctellette square?

Context: urban condition

01 Views

02 Verticality

The proposal suggests devoting the northern bridge to non-motorised mobility and the southern bridge to car traffic, strongly emphasising vertical connections to water and potential recreational spaces

03 Axes

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Analysis of motorised, pedestrian and public transportation flows over the Sainctelette Bridges. Top: intensity of car traffic during the day. Bottom: space allocated to each mode of transportation.

The proposal merges less frequented streets with adjacent public spaces to create a continuous space. The introduction of an east-west crossing connects the two banks and emphasises the qualities of the area. Lastly, the vacant metro station below the canal is reactivated, and vertical connections make the platforms accessible again.

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-1

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Axonometric views of the proposed design showing the connections between the different superimposed layers.

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Vision: proposed occupation of vacant spaces

Vision: establishment of vertical network

Cross sections of the proposal showing the rehabilitation of the large vacant underground spaces and the active connections between the road level and the banks of the canal.

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DELETE Bil jan a N i ko li c, S tefa n S ch mi d t , Fe d e r i c o To ma so n i , Ju rge n Z a pp e

Sainctelette Square is a place of heavy infrastructural crossing and deep socioeconomic disparities. The analysis of Sainctelette indicated strong forces are driving the area towards development, most of which are ignoring the scale of the street. Indeed, the street becomes the obstacle, the fracture we seek to overcome. Following site surveys and reflexions, it was understood that the multicrossing point – the two bridges – is a physical and metaphorical obstacle obstructing the area’s development. The neighbourhood of Maritime, bordered by the Boulevard Leopold II and the Avenue du Port, is strategically located between the city development along the Canal and the Tour and Taxis site, thus making this area extremely interesting. On the opposite side of the canal, a future museum, within the former Citroen Building, promotes a picture that introduces the whole area along the Canal as a new cultural and leisure attraction. The analyses have shown that the ‘Maritime block’ is an ‘island’ in itself, having lowrise buildings that face the imposing architecture of banking headquarters and new developments. These buildings create a contrast, offering tremendous possibilities to connect and rethink. It also presents the universal condition of the old giving way to the new, losing its own attributes. In those situations, how

can the diversity be preserved or even pronounced? In addition, how could the exclusion and homogeneity be reduced to bring more diversity? The quality of the neighbourhood is evident in the contrast between large and small volumes, the diversity of programmes, and the multiplicity of social groups. We see a potential for transforming the street into a sidewalk to reintroduce the silence it once had: the clear, biunique message to make room for an unpredictable ‘street life’, allowing the road to act as an instigator that can give strength to the area’s character. The first step is to close the street to pedestrians. Second, negotiated strategies should encourage locals to create an array of new jobs that will eventually strengthen the local economy. This future scenario is focussed on offering a direct link with the Canal, allowing an alternative connection to the new Tour and Taxis project and an eventual future extension to the north. The aim is to make the residents an active part of development and give them the opportunity to directly profit from the new situation. This proposal would create a new meeting point; raise awareness and exchange of knowledge; shift to different places that will surround the whole area; and speculate about, preserve, and revive the place’s identity.

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Photographs showing the important contrasts of scale in the morphology of the area and is built typologies.

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We need to check again the images. these are not the field action.

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a c

The analysis of Sainctelette indicated strong forces are driving the area towards new developments, most of which are ignoring the scale of the street. Indeed, the street becomes the obstacle, the fracture we seek to overcome.

Cross sections of different typologies of streets found in the area showing the way transportation flows are distributed in each of them.

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pedestrians

public transport

pedestrians bus locked open spaces

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accessible open spaces

metro

Typo-morphological analysis of the accessible or inaccessible vacant lots of the research area.

Analysis of transportat flows in and around the research area with a closer focus on pedestrian movement and public transportn. It appears clearly that pedestrian movement is largely conditioned by the location of public transportation stops.

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New street New squares Buildings

The proposal aims to stress the importance of a pedestrian street that will regenerate the area and encourage locals to interact in new ways strengthening eventually the local community and economy.

Proposed design of the pedestrian street with enlargements within the vacant lots of the area.

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THE ‘PLACERELLE’ M i ch a e l Bi a n ch i (L’E sc au t )

The competition set up by the authorities of Charleroi included three complex operations: the renovation of the quays of the river Sambre on the left bank over a length of 600 meters, the transformation of a disused government building at the location of a former Belgium National Bank into an Arts Centre, and finally, the construction of a pedestrian bridge crossing the river Sambre right in front of this building. The project of the new bridge meant connecting the ground floor of the Arts Centre to the ground floor of a future shopping mall to be constructed on the other side of the river in the near future. The competition proposal of the association l’Escaut-V+ greatly considered the question of the status of this bridge. The conditions of setting the bridge 4 meters above the public space and linking a cultural facility with a private commercial complex raised several questions. For example, such a high-pitched pedestrian infrastructure poses serious problems for access from the public space below, particularly for the people with reduced mobility. On the other hand, the elevated end of the pedestrian bridge on the side of the commercial functions raises many doubts about the status and uses of the public space when the shopping complex is closed. The proposal of L’Escaut-V + was simply to connect this infrastructure element to the level of the public space and relate to it immediately, instead of organizing a connection between two buildings. This solution resolved the questions mentioned above but brought other issues into consideration.

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THE ‘PLACERELL E’

One of the problematic cases was the meeting point between the footbridge and the quays on the right bank of the river because the pedestrian public space is greatly reduced by the presence of the railroad (the ‘underground’ tram of Charleroi) and a traffic lane with a fast car track leading to the South train station. The width of the pedestrian sidewalk remaining is reduced to 3 meters. According to the authorities, this situation is going to change within about 10 years, following a new master plan that is currently under development. Thus, the end of the bridge should be designed in line with the temporary situation but should also allow an evolution adapted to these future urban changes. Another crucial fact is that the left bank quays offer a public space, generous in length (600m) but rather narrow in width (20m). Extending this space would allow recreational uses, such as walks along the river or playgrounds for children, but the part of the passage in the neighbourhood of the Arts Centre is problematic. The Arts Centre has foreseen organizing public outdoor events that would bring hundreds of people together, yet the public space is not large enough to accommodate so many visitors. These two constraints have contributed to the idea of making this bridge more an extension of the public space than a pedestrian crossing. By widening the bridge, it could become a true public square above the water, a direct extension of the docks, located just in front of the new Arts Centre. Like the bridge of Avignon of a famous French song, it would finally become a bridge on which the crowd can dance. From a symbolic point of view, this option would add significant interest to the global layout because the bridge offers views of the surrounding industrial landscape of Charleroi. Therefore, it instantly associates public gatherings with the historical background, crucial for the identity of the city. This bridge has been called placerelle (a mix between the French words place and passerelle) in honour of its dual status of a crossing infrastructure and a public space. By obtaining this new feature, the bridge would fully

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realise its justification in connection with the left bank of the river Sambre, regardless of the future developments or adjustments that would take place on the right bank. On the left river bank, the bridge is connected to the quays by a monumental flight of stairs running across its width. Like those on the docks, these oversized stairs offer as much opportunity for sitting as for climbing. They also allow the raised area of the ‘placerelle’ to be seen as a continuity of the docks, both in the physical appearance and the functional uses. A key criterion for ensuring this continuity would be to lower the bridge as much as possible to avoid an excessive difference in levels between the docks and the ‘placerelle’. Because the bottom level of the structure was determined by the size of passing boats, important work was provided by the structural engineer office of Bollinger and Grohmann (Paris Office). They were challenged to modify the bridge structure to be as thin as possible to reduce the ground level of the bridge as much as possible. The result of the study was a proposal to create the central element as a solid welded steel structure 80cm high and 32m long. The lower face of the bridge is integrally covered with stainless steel. It reflects the luminescence of the river surface and brightens the public space beneath the bridge, despite the large width of the structure. From a distance, this coating causes the bridge to seem to disappear because of the moving light reflected from the water. On the right bank, the ‘placerelle’ is connected to the narrow footpath by two side ramps. Even though they are temporary, these ramps are made to stay in place for an estimated 10 years and have, therefore, been designed to integrate perfectly with the main piece. As a part of the future urban space, development is planned on the right river bank. It is intended to extend the pedestrian area on a larger scale there. It will allow transformation of the ending of the ‘placerelle’ into a monumental staircase, symmetrical to that currently on the left bank.

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MIDDLE CITIES PASSAGES Wa rd Ve r b a ke l (Plu soffi c e a rch i te ct s)

Billions of dollars have been invested in the expansion and improvement of Torontoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s public transport system, which extends from the central districts, through the inner suburbs, and into the metropolitan region. This provides an opportunity to rethink the future of the horizontal metropolis and to combine a series of small, high-impact interventions with major infrastructural projects. The theme of passage is central to the conceptual rethinking of what are now a car-centered inner suburbs based on a quintessential North American street grid design. The investment could amount to 16 billion dollars of ugliness, states Leslie Woo from Metrolinx, an organisation that oversees the transit project throughout the metropolitan region. New extensions to the commuter rail network, such as the Sheppard East Light Rail Transit (LRT), are part of this investment and aligned with municipal plans that call for growth that is less dependent upon the automobile. New development is directed to areas well-served by public transit, efficiently using existing infrastructure, and, wherever possible, making transit, cycling, and walking more attractive alternatives. This research is designed to investigate how infrastructure can interweave with existing local, small-scale pedestrian networks. It is also provides a chance to test how forging connections among local paths and transit infrastructure can further support the development and improvement of local living conditions. The major infrastructure operation in this sense is an opportunity to rethink the way energy streams, water run

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Plusoffice and DELVA – Collage for the competition ‘On the Way to Sheppard Parkway’

- TOOLBOX $

two small trees 500$ will get you two small maple trees

reclaimed utility pole 500$ will keep an induction light on for 10000h

500$ is the cost of 20m3 retention pond

Eliott Clark uses his rainwater for growing vegetables, saving his family up to 50$ weekly, ... in good seasons.

500$ per inhabitant is spent by the City of Toronto for lighting the streets during 1 year

water barrel and rain garden

500$ is invested p.p. by the city of Toronto on basement flooding prevention

plot gardens and community space 500$ will get you 5 year permit for a city owned plot garden

rainwater reuse/retention and public tower garden

Adrien Lee Chin led a group of volunteering residents to apply for a community grant for the operation of their community green house cafe. Toronto is spending 100x more grant money on residents in the center of town.

500$ reduction on health care fees per family since the neighborhood opened the barn along one of the passages. The school runs an after school gardening program and every saturday people drop by to pick up their CSA basket

500$ per inhabitant were paid by insurance companies in weather-related claims after the storm and floods in 2013

500$ per inhabitant is invested by the City of Toronto in repairing the existing network of pipes and treatment plants around the city

David Socknaki inhereted this building from his father. He received a seed grant from the city to open up the underused grant for passages along with closing a p.o.p. deal with the province (privatly owned public space liability agreement).

20x500$ the city invests in a community green house cafe with the rent from the plot gardens

$ $ $ neighborhood barn

double front townhouse

500$ extra rent per month for each additional studio in the double fronted house

100x500$ is needed for retrofitting these 100 units for rainwater reuse and equip the garden with a retention pond in exchange for public accessible passages

Catherine Ethier is renting out the additional unit she built following the city program Back-to-Front. She transformed the backgarden into a front towards Sheppard Ave. and the LRT.

new development with urban agriculture and public park

Joseph Cao was one of the first owners to redevelop his plot and supermarket on Sheppard Ave. into a mixed use housing project with commercial ground floor, an urban agriculture rooftop and a collective garden with right of way for pedestrian/ bicycle passages.

$ $

bicycle station

Jessica Ling’s family has no car, like most of the districts inhabitants. Everyday she walks to school with her father, who then takes a rental bike to be on time for the 8.12 LRT to downtown. 53% of the inhabitants don’t even have a drivers license.

pathway lights

$ $

LRT platforms double as water buffers

2x500$ in ecological services are accounted for by Toronto’s 10.2 million tree, 1000$ per inhabitant each year.

2x500$ per inhabitant of Ontario is spent by Metrolinx over the next decade on transport improvements.

500$ was invested by the department of parks forestry and recreation for each pathway light crossing the Highland Creek ravine, extending their use as passage way beyond dusk.

“That could be 16 billion of ugliness” Leslie Woo, Chief PLanning Officer Metrolinx, July 2015

Plusoffice and DELVA - Toolbox for the competition ‘On the Way to Sheppard Parkway’

MI D D LE CI TI ES PASSAG ES

off, and the flow of people are part of our urbanisation models, investigating how the implementation of closed systems, circular processes, and energy innovation can change urban life in the suburbs radically. With the winning competition entry, ‘On the Way to Sheppard Parkway’, the team of Plusoffice Architects – a Brussels-based design firm in architecture and urban design – was able to impress an international jury with a redevelopment strategy for a major boulevard in the eastern suburbs of Toronto. Together with team member DELVA landscape architects, the designers investigated the careful positioning of tram stops in to the existing fabric and its network of passages. They researched how the planned Sheppard East Light Rail Transit could be woven into a mixed residential fabric of individual houses, high-rise residences, commercial strips, and, every so often, leftover natural structures, such as ravines. The concept of the proposal is based on the linking of informal networks and the activities of daily life with large-scale infrastructure; the overarching agenda is to to relaunch the dynamics that these inner suburbs so badly need. LANDS CA P E I NFRAST RU CT U RE Large-scale infrastructure should take on the responsibility of realising other agendas: sustainability, social services, education, water retention, and so on. With this proposal, the team plans to continue the long tradition of integrated thinking about landscape and infrastructure as introduced by Frederik Law Olmstead in his parkway typology throughout North America. In 1902, the city of Toronto could not afford $500 to pay for Olmstead’s services when designing an island park. However a hundred years later, an investment of 2 x $500 per capita has been made by Metrolinx in transportation improvement. In an attempt to transform a suburban neighbourhood that is underserved by social and cultural services, has little access to car transport, and is amongst

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the most ethnically diverse districts in town, our proposal focusses on multiple constituencies, numerous small interventions, and small budgets. All together, they add up to what could become the Sheppard Parkway District. A TOO L B OX FO R B U I L D I N G ( IN AN) O P ER ATI O N AL L AN DSCAPE From utility post reuse for lighting some of the informal passages, to opening housing estate gardens that had been closed, each of the proposed interventions share the same goal. The LRT investment radiates out into the neighbourhood, inducing numerous elements that build a 21st century landscape with an identity stemming from the mere fact that it can do something. The water network is built up from the smallest units (water barrels and rain gardens), to landscaping lawns and sport parks, to retention ponds and water squares which are generally usable and aid in preventing flash floods. Development on the large scale, the small scale and retrofitting, benefit from grants. The agenda for sustainability makes these elements into assets for the owners and collectively accessible for the neighbourhood. Where possible, plot gardening and community barns dotted along the passage network link personal benefits to community building and educational opportunities. TH E H U M AN SCAL E O F PASSI NG T H R OU G H A GR I D D ED CI TY When discussing the meaning of passage, considering the organisational pattern of the city is crucial. The horizontal settlement is structured by a large-scale rectilinear framework, in which a multitude of programs, scales, and sub-patterns can coexist. The LRT is an opportunity to introduce specificity into what is seemingly generic. The stops at mid-block locations tie in to the improved passage networks and existing features (creek, ravine, railway, easement strip, and so forth). The clarity of pure forms,

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such as circles of light, help to create safe havens within the complex city fabric, a sense of place for the passages experienced by LRT riders.

– – – – – – – – – –

TEN R EC O MM E NDAT I O NS FO R T HE C I T Y AND ME T RO LI NX : Start with mid-block stops that better connect with neighbourhood passages You need to have a water agenda of infiltration and retention Room for trees in the profile build the identity of your LRT When LRT passes the ravines, open up to that to reveal a citywide landscape Use variations in light ambience as attraction, experience, and to create rhythm Complement the LRT with a bicycle agenda (bikeshare and so on) Engage with small- and medium-sized developers /development Set up a social program that flanks the LRT implementation Raise the sustainability agenda (H2O, energy, materials, and so forth) Open space and underused land in the suburbs can be part of the development idea

Through such a multitude of small operations, co-creation initiatives, and intelligent urban design and planning, this suburban neighbourhood could be on the way to becoming an exemplary district, well served with attractive housing in an accessible and operational landscape: Hence, the Sheppard Parkway.

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PASSAG ES Pierre-M a r i e Au ffret , V i n c e n t H e r te n b e rge r, A g at h e Lav i e lle (S U N +G ATE )

Talking about passages entails dealing with barriers. Our Chinese experience on the project Sun + Gate (â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Re-investing the Expo 2010 siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;) in the international competition organised by the Institute for the City on the Move has been an opportunity to explore those two permanent contradictions of the contemporary city. To start our investigation, we chose three architectural references to illustrate our definition of what a passage must constrain. DO IT NOW The Redentore Bridge in Venice is an ephemeral and symbolic installation. The bridge has been rebuilt every year since 1592 to connect two islands by a few feet. USES Bosc Bridge, OMA in Bordeaux, is programmed for attractions. The oversized bridge can host all kinds of open air programs, from the daily urban traffic to the most vibrant ephemeral event. EXPER I E NC E Maribour Bridge, J.Ishigami in Slovenia, is a promenade across the landscape. Instead of choosing the most direct link between the two banks, this bridge offers an opportunity to enjoy the landscape. Among the various definitions of a passage, more than an infrastructural object, a passage must refer to different fields, led by the question of temporality. Our final proposal

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is not only an architectural response to the problematic but also an illustrated multidisciplinary toolbox to question the notion of limit.

cultu

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Axonometry of the project ‘Re-investing the Expo 2010 site’, Sun + Gate

Junya Ishigami - Maribor Pedestrian Bridge, 2010

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PASSAG E TO T HE RI VE R For the Shanghai Expo 2010, with its 70,000,000 visitors, the future district was planned as a juxtaposition of different monofunctional enclaves. Therefore, the former ephemeral crowded village is being transformed into a classical scheme of the ‘divided city’. Today, the one kilometer River Mall, the housing in a gated community, the business district, and the river park have their own lives, each with its own rhythm without interacting with the others. Taking into account this state of the city, we began to consider would tool could be used to reintroduce public space inside these divided enclaves. There, we had our starting point for the urban project. We did not find a Chinese word for passage, but we found an interesting translation for in-between space: the Chinese characters of a sun inside a gate. Our project has been oriented along two main actions: re-gating (shifting limits to reconsider public space) and re-routing (adapting mobilities to activate their intermodal public space). The most important booster of the process would be the re-routing of the tramway layout. Disconnecting it from the 4x4 lanes road would create ‘tensions’ among different mobility lines, a way to generate soft flows in a more porous district. Considering these two actions, we defined the ‘passage to the river’ as a demonstrator passage. It would be a vibrant longitudinal public space crossing monofunctional enclaves. It would be activated by architectural magnets able to bring changes on limits and introduce new rhythms and uses along the path.

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F ROM T HE G AT E D C O MM U NI T Y TO THE T RA D I T I O NA L S HA NG HA I C O NC E P T OF THE LA NE Gradually, the gated housing community will come to support of micro-economy, reinterpreting the historical concept of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;laneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Even if doors are opened, it keeps its status of being a controlled public space, but it would be activated by microprograms along a public space. It allows easy access from the metro to the tramway with a soft and urban path activated with urban services.

OMA, 2013 - Pont Jean-Jacques Bosc, Bordeaux

F ROM A MO NO FU NCT I O NA L B U S I NES S A RE A TO AN U RBA N A RE A , E ASY TO C RO S S AND ACT I VAT E D I N O FF-P E A K HO U RS The urban typology already designed for this district was porous and physically compatible with urban uses. Our project was to look for alternative programs with variant schedules from conventional offices. By diversifying the office typologies (incubator or start-up, coworking, etc.) and programming recreational uses (leisure rooftops, etc.), the effect would be to bring life and people to this area outside of normal office hours. F ROM A HI D D E N RI VE R BA NK TO A R E A L E NT RA NC E TO T HE S I T E The river bank is full of potential and could host many local- and metropolitan-scale leisure activities (a park, an open air cinema, beach decks, etc.), but it does not have easy access. There is no continuity along the river, and the area can only be accessed by crossing many infrastructural obstacles. Reactivating the ferry and working on better accessibility from the river bank would make it a destination place on both a local and a metropolitan scale.

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F R O M AN E MPTY AR EA TO A LON GI TU D I N AL L EI SUR E PARK The abandoned space between the business district and the gated housing community is reserved for the construction of the Maglev train. Why not transform this peculiar urban void into a linear park for the inhabitants? To value the potential of the future tramway, we propose to re-route its line along this linear space. By disconnecting it from the 4x4 lanes road, we would create a long public space beside a new soft public transport, programmed to ensure the transition between the gated community and the business district. This is a first step towards the river for the residents. When the tram arrives, it serves as a gateway to the heart of the site, shifting the centre of the expo site and encouraging encounters between workers and inhabitants. TOO LS AN D I N VAR I AN TS The passage to the river is not an end in itself. The ultimate goal would be to make it so well integrated that it would become invisible. Its implementation would be guided by the following 3X3 invariants: INTERWEAVING OF THREE CROSSED DISCIPLINES

– Mobility strategy: studying all the urban mobilities to be able to reinforce the role of public transport as public space, an urban activator, and have an influence on the quality of the pedestrian paths. – Programming (indoor and outdoor spaces): diversifying uses and users by reprogramming monofunctional areas, programming outdoor spaces as a starter for future appropriations. – Architecture of public space and its activators: building quality into the design of the public space, revealing the strength of the public space in the urban fabric.

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POLYCHRONY IN THREE TEMPORALITIES

– Now: experimenting with doing (user tests) to prefigure the future during construction of a larger project. – 24/24: acting on the urban schedule, activating public spaces for after work and weekends, expanding public transport. – 2020: developing the project to evolve beyond its initial conception, allowing for context change, making the project adaptable. INTERWEAVING OF THREE COMPLEMENTARY SCALES:

– The metropole’s scale – The Expo site – The monofuncional sector This includes detecting the key actions that can be strategic on the metropolitan scale with added value on a more local scale.

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MASTER TUTORS Stefan Bendiks, Aglaée Degros (Artgineering) Artgineering is an office for research and design based in Brussels and Rotterdam. Working at the border between urban planning and infrastructure, the office devises and implements strategies for complex (inter) urban areas, with particular attention to the role of infrastructure and the public space. In different types of projects Artgineering reinterprets the relation between infrastructure, landscape and urban development. Starting with precise observation of the existing territorial realities, the office moves between the spatial, social and cultural production of space, also addressing the communication and anchoring of the designs through innovative participatory processes. In practice and theory the two partners of Artgineering, Aglaée Degros and Stefan Bendiks, have devoted themselves to both experimentation and a renewal of the tools of the urban planning discipline. This through a holistic approach in which creativity and technology come together: art-gineering. Stefan Bendiks (architect) and Aglaee Degros (urban planner) have been teaching and lecturing on architecture, urban planning and design at various institutions Europe. In the recent past they were professors at the TU Vienna and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Aglaée Degros is currently visiting professor at the VUB. ACADEMIC STAFF Jens Aerts graduated as an engineer-architect at the KU Leuven in 1997. After gaining experience in offices both locally and internationally, he graduated with a Master in Urbanism in 2001 at the UPC Barcelona. He then became

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advisor in urbanism for the Vlaams Bouwmeester (20022004) and for the Ministry of Mobility and Public Works of the Brussels-Capital Region (2004- 2009). He is now an associate of the office BUUR and specialises in strategic planning, master planning, project and town planning supervision. At BUUR he is mainly in charge of projects in Brussels, such as the development plan at Marco Polo, the renewal of Rue Neuve and the master plan for Biestebroeck. Since 2011, he is guest professor of the Master of Town and Territory Planning at the VUB. Paola Alfaro d’Alençon studied architecture in Vienna (Meisterklasse W. Prix) and urban design in Berlin (TUBerlin). She founded the U-Lab (Urban Research and Design Laboratory) in 2010 together with Daniela Konrad. Since 2004 she works as senior researcher at the Habitat Unit at the Architecture Institute, Faculty VI of the TU Berlin. She was guest lecturer at the Catolic University in Chile at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning (2005) and Cornell University in NY/ USA (2006), research fellow at the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam (2006). She works on international cooperation projects with partners from the global south on sustainable urban development and housing issues. P. Alfaro d’Alençon combines teaching with professional architecture and urban design practices from Berlin, New York and Santiago de Chile and has realized several architecture and urban design projects. Kana Arioka is an engineer (Waseda University, 1996) and architect (University IUAV of Venice, 2003). She practiced as an architect and urban designer in Studio Associato Secchi Vigano’ (Milan) and in Atelier Bow-Wow (Tokyo), from 2003 to 2006. Her main works in this period are ‘Park Spoor

Noord’ in Antwerp and ‘Mado Building’ in Tokyo. In 2007 she founded Arioka Architectural and Urban Design where she works on various projects on urban as well as architectural scale in suburban cities in Japan. Recently she collaborated also with 51N4E in Brussels. Her main interests focus on the planning theory such as urban affordance based on the spatial urban empiricism. Andrea Bortolotti is architect graduated at the Università IUAV di Venezia (2010) with a project thesis on open spaces and sustainable urban water drainage systems for the metropolitan area of Milan. He practiced as urban designer collaborating in different activates of the Department of Urban Studies of the Politecnico di Milano (20112013), and since 2012 he is member of the association Latitude Platform for Urban Research and Design, based in Brussels (BE) and Venice (IT), with which explored the themes of environmental risk and territorial cohesion. Since 2013 he is collaborating with the LOUISE research center of the Faculty of Architecture de l’ULB and he is now enrolled in the ULB PhD program in Art de Batir et Urbanisme (2014). Nadia Casabella is architect (UPC Barcelona) and MSc in Regional Planning (LSE). She chooses to work rather exploratorily than problemsolving oriented, straddling across research, teaching, and practice. She is currently project assistant at the Faculté d’Architecture de l’ULB, and lecturer at the VUB (master urban design and planning SteR*). She is about to complete her PhD on the topic of regional, railwaybased public transport. In 2010 she founded with Bert Gellynck the architecture and urbanism practice 1010 [ten-ten], aimed at producing architecture on the scale of the city. Among their last

undertakings, the master plan for Brussels’ South Station in collaboration with Güller+ Güller and ZUS, runner-up in an international competition, and the Farmhouse for the Parckdesign biennale exhibition in Brussels (2014). Carles Crosas is PhD Architect (ETSA Barcelona). He has been teaching urbanism at the School of Architecture of Barcelona since 2001 and has been invited to other universities. Former collaborator and assistant teacher to Professor Manuel de Solà-Morales, he is researcher at the Laboratory of Urbanism of Barcelona where he co-edits D’UR and he presented his PhD dissertation on the urban transformation of La Havana (2009). Concurrently, he set up his own studio where he works on diverse projects. Geoffrey Grulois is an engineer-architect (FPMs). Before becoming a teacher at the ISACF La Cambre in 2004 and later on at the Faculté d’Architecture de l’ULB, he studied and worked as an urbanist in Curitiba, Barcelona, and Tokyo. He cofounded the design studio Space Speculation in 2005 and the ‘Resilient Ishinomaki Workshops’ in 2011. He holds a PhD on the emergence of the concept of agglomeration in Belgium in the 20th century. He is co-author of the chapters on urbanism in several monographs, including LucienJacques Baucher, Jean-Pierre Blondel and Odette Filippone (ULB-FWB); Jean- Jules Eggericx (AAM) and the ‘Groupe L’Equerre’ (Fourretout). After studying in the Dept. of Architecture at Waseda University and completing a master’s degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2005, Keigo Kobayashi was involved in numerous major projects at the Rotterdam office of OMA/AMO with Rem Koolhaas until 2012. During OMA years, he served

as the project architect for various buildings and urbanplanning projects in several Middle Eastern and North African countries. From 2012, Kobayashi has been teaching at Waseda University Dept. of Architecture. In 2015, he founded with others NPO called PLAT(Platform for Architecture Thinking). Some of his works includes ‘Exhibition Design of 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale Japanese Pavilion’, and ‘Waseda Live House (Zero-energy experimental house) project.’ Embedded in interdisciplinary urban studies Elina Kränzle investigates processes of urban development in a context of social and political change. In her research she focuses on citizens’ appropriations of public spaces and political processes in urban governance in face of new urban crises. To explore these topics she combines various disciplines’ approaches, from social and political science methods to visual and mapping tools from spatial planning and geography. After work and study periods in different cities abroad she now lives and works in Vienna, Austria. Benoit Moritz graduated as an architect at the ISACFLa Cambre and urban planner at the UPC Barcelona. In 2001, he cofounded the office MSA with Jean-Marc Simon. He additionally developed a teaching and prospective research activity at the Faculté d’Architecture de l’ULB, where he is the coordinator of the Laboratory on Urbanism, Infrastructures and Ecologies (Louise). Within MSA, Benoit Moritz is responsible for urbanism and public space projects, such as the master plan for the development of Tour et Taxis, the realisation of the sustainable district Tivoli, or the renewal of the Place de la Monnaie. Benoit Moritz is also the author of many articles related to urbanism.

Dimitris Panayotopoulos studied at the ULB Faculty of Architecture. During his postgraduate studies he worked on diverse urban contexts of major global metropolises in Europe and Asia (Belgium, China, Japan, Taiwan, India and Greece) through internships, summerschools and design studios. In 2013 he received a scholarship to study one year abroad at the Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan before returning to Brussels and graduating in 2015. From June 2015 he has been an active member of the research laboratory LoUIsE at the ULB Faculty of Architecture and worked on several projects including the organisation of the Bridges Masterclass, a research on the productive possibilities of Brussels for the 2016 IABR and a research on the Masterplan of the Solbsosch campus for the ULB managing office. In September 2016 he will start his PhD research. Claire Pelgrims graduated as an architect in 2015 at the Université libre de Bruxelles. She is currently a doctoral researcher within the Laboratory on Urbanism, Infrastructures & Ecologies (LoUIsE) of the Centre des Laboratoires Associés pour la Recherche en Architecture (CLARA) of the ULB Faculty of Architecture. She is also coordinator of the MICM-ARC research project on mobility, identity and territory. The subject of her master thesis, under the supervision of Géry Leloutre, was the study of highrise modern buildings in their relation with the brussels roadscape. Her researches focus on narratives of fast and slowness in the evolution of mobility infrastructures since 1950 in Brussels. Jorge Perea is an architect and planner. A disciple and collaborator of Manuel de Solà-Morales from 1996 until his passing away, he then

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opened a professional studio in 2012 to follow his theoretical discourse and reflections on the modern city. Former urban design professor at IAAC, the University of Chicago, at Barcelona (IES) and Syracuse University (EUA), he teaches since 2007 at the Department of Urban Design at the ETSA Barcelona. Currently his studio is developing Manuel de Solà’s Operaplein project, the renewal of Antwerp’s central area. In Barcelona, he developed the reform of the urban environment of the Sants high speed station, reflections and approaches on the transformation of the industrial port, the creation of a new urban centrality in a suburban context in Valldoreix in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, and the design of two Cerdà blocks in the technological quarter of 22@ in Barcelona. Michael Ryckewaert is an engineer-architect and urban planner and holds a PhD in architecture. He is associate professor of urbanism at VUB, where he coordinates urban planning research in Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research and heads the Master in Urban Design and Spatial Planning. He is also a postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven. His research focuses on housing and spatial policy. Other key research interests are the history of urbanism, infrastructure, and mobility. Michael Ryckewaert has published on social housing, urban housing projects, urbanism, and mobility history. Ali Saad is an architect and urbanist living in Berlin. He studied at TU Berlin and UPC Barcelona with grants from the German National Academic Foundation and the Erasmus Programme. Ali worked at EMBT in Barcelona, maxwan in Rotterdam and at LIN in Berlin, where he was chef de projet of the Grand Paris project. In 2009 he co-founded Uberbau, a practice that

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was specialised in urbanism and won several awards in international competitions. Since 2014 he runs Bureau Ali Saad (bureaualisaad.eu) in Berlin working on strategic urbanism and architecture and is a research associate at the Laboratory of Integrative Architecture at TU Berlin. Maria Chiara Tosi, urban designer, is associate professors at IUAV University of Venice. She worked on various city master plans (Brescia, Pesaro, Macerata, Ferrara, Feltre, Belluno, Venice). Her research and work is mainly focused on the processes of transformation of the territory, and the relationship between welfare policies and the construction of the city. Among her main books: Tracce di città (2001), Toward an Atlas of Delta Landscape in Europe (2013), Welfare Space; On the Role of Welfare State Policies in the Construction of the Contemporary City (2014). Rien van de Wall graduated as a historian (KU Leuven, 2007) and urban planner (VUB, 2014). Since 2015, he has been a project officer at the Urban Development Agency of the Brussels Capital Region (ADT-ATO.brussels). During his studies he developed a particular interest in the relation between mobility, infrastructure, urban planning and the design of public space. His master’s thesis research, which resulted in a refurbishment proposal for the Brussels inner ring road, has been awarded the VRP Afstudeerprijs 2014 and the Georges Allaert prijs 2015. Yannick Vanhaelen is an architect, founding member of the office DEVspace. After his studies at La Cambre in Brussels and at the Academie van Bouwkunst in Amsterdam, he worked for several renowned offices, among them NL architects, before joining 51N4E (BE) in 2010 as project leader for the

Elaboration of a territorial vision for 2040 for the Brussels Capital Region, a collaboration with l’AUC (FR) and Bureau Bas Smets (BE). Hse is now a PhD candidate and researcher within the Laboratory on Urbanism, Infrastructures and Ecologies (Louise) of the Faculté d’Architecture de l’ULB, where his research focuses on the cultural infrastructures of Brussels’ Metropolitan Zone.

Urbanism. Previous affiliations include West 8 Urban Design &amp; Landscape Architecture Rotterdam and Studio Secchi-Viganò Architecture &amp; Urbanism Milano. He is co-editor of the books ‘Scarcity in Excess, The Built Environment and the Economic Crisis in Iceland’ (2014) and ‘Landscapes of Water’ (2008).

Fabio Vanin is an architect and urban designer, holding a PhD in Urbanism from University Iuav of Venice. He is currently assistant professor in Landscape Urbanism at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels and co-director of Latitude Platform, an organization based in Belgium that develops research on urban and territorial issues. He practiced as urban designer for Studio Associato Secchi Vigano’ (Milan) and BUUR (Leuven) and he collaborated with various universities (IUAV Venice, KU Leuven, TU Eindhoven, WITS Johannesburg). His main research topics are the relationship between urbanization processes and environmental threats – with a focus on water – urban security and the transformation of Lusophone cities. He recently published ‘Maputo, open city: investigations on an African capital’ and ‘Pancho Guedes – Vitruvius Mozambicanus’.

Oana Maria Apetroaiehe received a scholarship to study one year at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio (Switzerland). He occasionally collaborates with the studio Carles Enrich Architecture + Urban Planning. Currently he is working as an assistant at LUB (Barcelona Urban Laboratory-ETSAB) while doing his thesis project, along with Pere Estévez, which reflects on the in between spaces left by the limits of Barcelona and its harbour.

Giambattista Zaccariotto studied in Italy (IUAV Venezia) and in The Netherlands (TU Delft). In 2010 he concluded a European PhD focused on the development of watersensitive- design tools for territories of dispersion. Presently he is associate professor at the department of Urbanism and Landscape at AHO Oslo and consultant/ designer at Asplan Viak, norwegian interdisciplinary foundation for design, research and planning. From 2012 he is visiting at IUAV Venezia in the context of the European Postgraduate Master in

STUDENTS

Marco Carraro (IT) is currently finishing his Master Degree at IUAV, University of Venice with a one year Norwegian exchange program with The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO) where he won the prize ‘Excellence in Architectural Writing’ sponsored by PAX. During the last years he has been working in Padova and Treviso with Carlana Mezzalira Pentimalli Architetti and in Madrid with Ensamble Studio. He has also collaborated as an assistant teacher with Marta Moreira from MMBB firm during W.A.VE. 2015 at IUAV. Currently, he is collaborating on the Swiss Pavillion Exhibition ‘Incidental space’ by Christian Kerez & Sandra Oehy at Biennale Architettura 2016. Francesco D’Aurelio (IT) is currently doing his MA at University IUAV of Venice focusing on urban studies. In 2014 he worked in Brussels for Studio Associato Bernardo Secchi - Paola Viganò were he developed urban visions about the metropolitan

underdeveloped areas of Bruxelles and Paris and the necessity of new spaces and activities for migration flows. Currently, he is doing international workshops in collaboration with many different universities and developing his personal researches. Matteo De Rossi (IT) is attending the first year of his master in Architecture at IUAV in Venice. For the last 4 years he has been focusing on urban planning and has participated to several workshops with an urban central aim. He had worked for two weeks in a selfbuilding workshop with sa.und. sa architects near Naples and has had the opportunity to study with world-renowned professors and architects like Sean Godsell, Carla Juaçaba, Jason Pomeroy and Jorge Lobos. He is now going to Japan, at Chiba university, to improve his skills and study in depth the society and the city phenomena. Joan Martí Elias (SP) started architecture in ETSA Barcelona in 2009. He has participated in international workshops organised by the AA, ZHAW Winterthur and ULB. In 2012 he received a scholarship to study one year at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio (Switzerland). He occasionally collaborates with the studio Carles Enrich Architecture + Urban Planning. Currently he is working as an assistant at LUB (Barcelona Urban Laboratory-ETSAB) while doing his thesis project, along with Pere Estévez, which reflects on the in between spaces left by the limits of Barcelona and its harbour. Tugyan Ertürk, is a master student at the Technical University of Vienna. He took the 2nd place in concrete student trophy in 2013, joined to the UN shadowing program, Austria Innovations Marathon, Berndorf Band Business Accelerator and Field Trips

program of TUwien in 2015. Currently he is working in the Vienna based firm StudioVlay and doing his master thesis on the slaughterhouse in Brussels. Pere Estévez Piorno (SP) started his studies at ETSA Barcelona in September 2009. He has traveled and worked in different European cities (London, Berlin, Glasgow,...) and has been on exchange at the TU Berlin. He is currently doing an internship at the AMB (Metropolitan Area of Barcelona) while working along with Joan Martí, on his thesis Project reflecting on the in between spaces left by the limits of the city of Barcelona and its harbour. Ludmila Fuster Arion (SP) is a student from the architecture school of Barcelona (ETSAB) currently finalising her final master project. During the last years, she has been combining her studies with internships in architecture studios. Parallel to her dedication to elite sport, se has participated in several competitions and has worked within the Urbanism department of her university. Bianca Gamser (AT) is currently finishing her architecture studies at Vienna’s University of Technology. Formerly she pursued a diploma study in History of Art. Her projects primarily concentrate on the interface between art and architecture. She focuses on site-specific performances and installations, which are always composed by a strong personal influence. Besides that she is doing small-scale architecture projects together with her partners in their design studio. Angel Martinez Gomez (MEX) is currently an architecture student at the Technische Universität Berlin. He graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Houston and has worked for small design-build companies in the Houston area. He has participated in several

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competitions in the USA such as the Red Hook Bike Station and Corridor, Brooklyn , New York (2008-2009).In Berlin has worked for the studio of the architect Claudius Pratsch. Ana Hernández (SP) is currently working on her Master thesis in Architecture at the ETSA Barcelona where she gradually oriented her interest towards urban planning and design. In order to achieve a more complete way to look at urban challenges she received a scholarship to study in Montreal and Munich for 1 year each. She has participated in several student competitions (i-Rec, Architecture for disaster reduction) and workshops (Thinking the City, Amsterdam). Her profile has changed towards a more resilient view of urban planning, fact that has generated the topic of her Master thesis ‘A watermanagement centre in Cuba’. Maria Leonardi (IT) started architecture in IUAV Venice in 2010. In 2012 she received a scholarship to study 1 year in Universidade Tecnica in Lisbon. She has worked in several architecture firms such as Carrilho Da Graca in Portugal and in 70FArchitecture in Holand and has participated in several student competitions. She just finished her master in IUAV, with her thesis project about the role of the infrastructure in connecting distinct urban spaces. Biljana Nikolic (NO) is currently finishing her master studies in Landscape Urbanism at The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, AHO. During her bachelor studies in Serbia she published the collection of marble stone wall relieves in collaboration with design group TOK (2014). She has worked as an assistant to Jeppe Aagaard Andersen on the Urban Design project of Shanghai Acrobat School in China now under construction (2015). Currently she is doing her diploma thesis on subject ‘Equation of Los Angeles River’

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collaborating with Architecture students from AHO. Kae Onoyama (JP) is currently finishing her architecture studies at Waseda Univ. She has won a prize for her thesis on flexible architecture and her diploma work was selected as one of the best works in her university in 2016. She has worked as a staff for the Japanese Pavilion of the 2014 Venice Biennale and is also active as an artist of Japanese avant-garde calligraphy where she has won a first prize in Japanese biggest exhibition of works by the general public in 2013. Currently she is working in Keiji Ashizawa Design parallel to her artistic activities. Zheng Pan (CHN) has been studying architecture at Tongji University in Shanghai since 2009 and is currently in his second master year. During his Bachelor studies he participated to several international workshops in Singapore, India, Switzerland and USA. After a half-year exchange project at TU Berlin, he is now back in Shanghai. Heike Raabe (DE) is currently in her first master year at the TU Berlin. She started studying architecture 2011 at the same university and did one year exchange to the University of Sydney in 2013 during her bachelor degree. She tries to give to her studies an international focus and plans to do another stay abroad at Universidade do Porto. Finally, she has gained professional experience working in offices and on building sites in Germany, Australia and Poland. Birgit Schwarzenberger (DE) started her architecture studies in 2009 at TU Wien. She was granted an Erasmus scholarship to study 1 year abroad at the University of Portsmouth (UoP) with a special focus on sustainable architecture. In 2014 she officially enrolled at UoP and

graduated with distinction. Alongside her studies Birgit has been working at architecture firms in Vienna as well as Portsmouth and participated in several design projects. Stephan Schmidt finished his Bachelor of Engineering in Architecture at the FH Würzburg in 2012. After an internship at Behnisch Architekten he started the Masters-Program in Urban Design at the TU Berlin in 2013. During his studies Stephan focused on practiceorientation, interdisciplinary working, urban and social exclusion and gentrification. Currently he is researching for his final thesis in the field of chrono-urbanism. Since 2015 he has been working as a Student Assistant at the UrbanLab+, dealing with issues of practice-orientation within academia. Here he additionally helps out with administrative issues, as well as the preparation of classes and conferences. Kengo Tachino (JP) is currently in his second year of Master at the Waseda University in Keigo Kobayashi Laboratory. His research is mainly focused on the process of the transformation of the space and its interval usage. His work was selected in the frame of the university’s assignment, as a second prize in 2012. Federico Tomasoni (IT) started his studies of Architecture in 2012 and now is in his first master year at the IUAV, University of Architecture of Venice. In the summer of 2014 he exposed at the XIV Biennale of Architecture in Venice, in collaboration with Daniel Libeskind. In the last years he has participated in several workshops with famous architects such as Jason Pomeroy, Mathias Klotz, Carla Juacaba and Jorge Lobos. Currently he is working in Copenhagen at the Architecture Studio: ‘Emergency Architecture and Human Rights’.

Helena Trias Prats (SP) is studying architecture at the ETSA Barcelona developing her final project about cooperative housing. In 2014 she received a scholarship to study one year abroad at the Faculdade de Arquitectura do Porto (Portugal). She has participated in the student competition Urban Plunge Barcelona with her university team and since 2014 is also a member of the student collective Buccstudio. Tamara Anna Asadeh Türemis (A) started her architecture studies at TU Wien in 2011. Next semester (2016) she will do an exchange programme at UCD Dublin and she plans to finish her studies with a master thesis project in Japan. In January 2016, she won the first price for a communication design project at TU Wien with her colleagues and is currently working at ATP Architekten Ingenieure in Vienna. Haruka Uemura (JP) is currently in her second year of Phd at the Waseda University in Tokyo. She graduated from Gerrit Rietveld Acadmie (NL) and Sandberg Instituut (NL). She was selected as under 35 years talented Japanese Architect in japan 2014 and 2015 and has won several competitions. In 2015 she was awarded a prize for Young Japanese Designer Talented by ELLE DECOR Japan. Giel Vanhoutte (BE) is currently following the second master year of Urbanism and Spacial Planning at the VUB. He graduated in architecture studies at the KUL in 2014. He followed workshops such as one in Brussels about neighbourhood participation and a summer school program in Shanghai at Tongji university about ecological city development. Sebastian Weindauer (DE) studies architecture at TU Berlin. In the last years he worked for the Chair of Architectural Theory by Prof.

Fritz H. Neumeyer and Prof Jörg H. Gleiter as well as for the Chair of Construction and Design by Prof. Ralf Pasel. He headed seminars and workshops and participated to serval summer-schools and academies and initiated the annual exhibition of the Institute for Architecture. In 2015 he was an intern at 51N4E in Brussels and he is currently working for the young emerging architecture office FAKT and on a publication series called ‘access to tools’. Nicolas Wicart (BE) started his studies in 2010 at the ULB Faculty of Architecture La Cambre-Horta in Brussels. He spent a year studying in Tokyo (Keio University) where he also worked for the design firm ‘Nosigner’. He graduated in September 2015 and has worked on several design projects and competitions. He is currently working at Jean-Christophe Quinton Architect in Paris.

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COLOPHON

ORGANIZATION

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Jens Aerts

Something Els

Benoit Moritz

www.somethingels.net

Michael Ryckewaert Geoffrey Grulois

COPY EDITING

Fabio Vanin

edit911

Rien van de Wal

www.edit911.com

Dimitris Panayotopulos PREPRESS SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

Mistral

Michael Ryckewaert Geoffrey Grulois

PRINTING

Benoit Moritz

BEMA-GRAPHICS NV/SA

Fabio Vanin Michael Ryckewaert

Jens Aerts Rien van de Wal

as well as the Cabinet of the Minister in charge of Mobility and Public Works

EDITOR

for generously providing the workspace

Fabio Vanin ISSN: 2294-8880 CO-EDITOR Dimitris Panayotopulos

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IMAGE CREDITS p.28 Artgineering p.156 (middle) Aerialfocusâ&#x20AC;&#x2030; p158 Marie-NoĂŤlle Dailly p.162 Plusoffice p.168 SUN+Gate p.168 Junya Ishigami p.170 OMA All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproducted or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owners. All statements contained in this research report are the sole responsibility of their authors. The publishers have made every effort to trace copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked, we will be pleased to make the necessary accreditations at the first opportunity.