TUBIZE

SCALES — L/S – Urban / Architectural LOCATION — Clabecq, site of the Forges de Clabecq POPULATION — 25,621 inhab. STRATEGIC SITE — 23.4 ha PROJECT SITE — 1.5 ha SITE PROPOSED BY — City of Tubize, Duferco Wallonia OWNER OF THE SITE — Duferco Wallonia POST-COMPETITION PHASE — Urban study with a potential implementation, or partial implementation of the project according to the adequacy of the proposals

Michel Januth — Bourgmestre de la Ville de Tubize Olivier Waleffe — Administrateur délégué - Duferco Wallonie

1. WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF THE SITE MUTATION? Tubize started mutating at the end of the industrial activities. As the Western economic cluster in Walloon Brabant, 21 km from Brussels, the city has attracted many real estate investors. Previously separated by industry, the town centre and the village of Clabecq will be linked by this new neighbourhood, which has recently been recognised as one of the 10 priority areas in Wallonia. The Europan site should create the future image of Tubize.

2. HOW CAN THE SITE BE INTEGRATED IN THE ISSUES OF PRODUCTIVE CITIES? HOW DO YOU CONSIDER THE PRODUCTIVITY ISSUE? The reconversion of the 87-ha site is a major factor in the economic development of Tubize. On the economic level, the masterplan already envisages a. o. “productive” zones (SMEs, multimodal and service sector activities). To make the connection to the project for the new neighbourhood, the site managers wanted to leave the strategic entry to the town to reflections from Europan. In this context, “productivity” would be seen from the angle of complementarity with the activities already envisaged for the rest of the site, but also from that of the functional mix that would bring back life to this piece of territory by proposing a transition between contrasting feature, of which it would constitute the link.

3. HAVE YOU ALREADY DEFINED A SPECIFIC PROCESS FOR THE URBAN AND/OR ARCHITECTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE AFTER EUROPAN? The Europan jury has chosen projects that enable original –and sometimes unexpected– options that force people to think. The choice comes with recommendations that still need to be debated among the site stakeholders. At this stage, we hope to be able to establish the initially envisaged process of urban study.

Seed Structure: The Production of Happiness

TUBIZE (BE) — WINNER

AUTHOR(S) — Humberto Miguel Aguiar Pereira (PT), Architect CONTACT — omatelier, Freamunde (PT), T. +351 914085738 humbertopereira@om-atelier.pt, www.om-atelier.pt

TEAM POINT OF VIEW — The city is an organism closely related to the human being. Starting from this point, we understand that to have a productive city we need to have productive human beings and to have this we need to go back to our essence: HAPPINESS. In this project site, we proposed the creation of a construction called the Seed of Happiness that intends to create an “organism” dedicated to the development of human being’s welfare. The Seed of Happiness will generate other cores called the Production Cores that will be structures containing a mixed program associated to production, learning/creativity and sale. This project proposes the creation of new synergies to produce Happiness. We hope that in the near future this “SEED” can be “PLANTED” in other places creating happy cities.

JURY POINT OF VIEW — The project sets out to rethink the factory in the town in terms of a life cycle. The reflection relates to the town as a “work”, considerably expanding the notion of “production” and including the production of the intangible and the symbolic. To do this, it uses a poetic approach and a new imaginary world of an urban pole factory that gets to the heart of “common well-being” and spaces for meditation and culture within a landscape atmosphere that combines plants, water and buried constructions that interact with hollow, horizontal and vertical elements.

AUTHOR(S) — Simone Valerio (IT), Pauline Durand (FR), Architects-urbanists; Stijn Elsen (BE), Architect; Frederik Vandyck (BE), Architectural & urban theorist CONTRIBUTOR(S) — Tom Uyttendaele (BE), Landscape architect CONTACT — KADERSTUDIO, Brussels (BE), T. +32 486580402 info@kaderstudio.eu, www.kaderstudio.eu

Learning From Tubize

TUBIZE (BE) — RUNNER-UP

TEAM POINT OF VIEW — Along the canal between Tubize and Clabeq, the tabula rasa of the Forges de Clabeq is probably the most evident emptiness you can feel when recalling Tubize. It evokes both the limit of a linear economic system and a big potential to stimulate other appropriation. For centuries, the territory has gone through radical infrastructural transformations that determined the development of the urban fabric and of its economy without reversibility. Then, we came up with the elaboration of a system. Choosing the grain sizes of the warehouses of the Sarsi Area and declining them in an alternation of plinths and voids sets the blueprint of the spatial strategy. If the plinths host a reversible mix of parking and productive activities (including retail culture and leisure) the voids become important un-built spaces along Rue de la Déportation, expressing the productive nature of the intervention.

JURY POINT OF VIEW — The project proposes the integration of the site into the urban project from the north, linking with the “Sarsi” buildings by simultaneously proposing a well-scaled process and project. Indeed, within the process of the island principle –and redrawing it– the project presents an appropriate scale by creating valid spaces with a variety of functions. The concept proposes an urban rhythm that allows an urban landscape that creates a neighbourhood identity to be defined. The project also proposes interesting phasing.

AUTHOR(S) — Fabio Vanin (IT), Andrea Bortolotti (IT), Alessandra Marcon (IT), Architects-urbanists; Andrea Aragone (IT), Marta De Marchi (IT), Architects CONTACT — Latitude Platform for urban research and design Bruxelles (BE), T. +32 477543707 info@latitude-platform.eu, www.latitude-platform.eu

TEAM POINT OF VIEW — The site of the Forge de Clabecq has a twofold strategic nature: it is an incredible land resource at the gates of Brussels, and a key local connection for a series of living/ productive and ecological corridors. What if this fallow land would re-connect to its many territorial (infra)structures in order to trigger new economic cycles? The project considers the area as a space welcoming active businesses in the region of Brussels, related to the construction industry, offering the space and infrastructure to stock, store, sort, recycle, display and sell materials and products. The proposal aims at developing a node that represents the missing link at the intersection of a North-South urban-productive axis and an East-West ecological-recreational one.