research report 2

NEXT DOOR QUARTIER _Research Report B2.1. Industrial Design TU/e Eindhoven

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Abstract Before starting research in Brussels, a prior knowledge was needed. Information concerning this pre-research can be found in the research report concerning “Woensel West�

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GUIDED TOUR WITH; WERNER DE JONGE The day started with meeting up with students from the St. Lucas College, after getting to know each-other quiet quickly the guided tour through the “Brabantwijk” started.

The tour was hosted by Werner de Jong, a young man that works as a social-worker within the neighborhood.

The tour included using a ‘viewmaster’, a toy-isch device on which historical pictures of the neighborhood could be viewed.

Werner told about the history of the area and that The Brabantwijk houses people from 80 different nationalities. Schaarbeek used to be a small village outside the Brussels city wall. But when the city expanded in the 19th century schaarbeek became a suburb of the city. Because of economic reasons the landlords in schaarbeek built very small and tall houses with small streets. In 1910 the North-station was build. Because of the good connection with the city and the northstation Schaarbeek became a wealthy area. But in the 1950’s the north and the south station where connected, this caused the north station to move 500 meters and because a tunnel needed to be build underneath the city centre, the railway had to rise 8 meters in the

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air, resulting in a big wall.

This wall cut the neighborhood apart from the city centre and created a mental barrier. In the 60’s the economy flourished causing the Belgium inhabitants moved to the countryside and in the city houses became vacant. The economy also needed new work forces, at first the forces were found in European countries like Greece and Italy. They found a home in the vacant city houses. After a couple years they moved back to their countries because the economy over there also became better.

The second wave of immigrants came from countries like Turkey and Morocco. But when they planned to go back in the 70’s, the economy suffered, forcing them to stay in Belgium. In Schaarbeek there was a big division between rich high upper-Schaarbeek and poor lowerSchaarbeek. The Mayor of Schaarbeek was a rightwinged francophone politician called Nol. With him the division became bigger, there were no investments in the area and all the money went to the richer parts of the municipality. This mayor controlled Schaarbeek for over 20 years. His politics resulted in a loss of trust from the inhabitants in the brabantwijk towards the government and municipality.

What is very noticeable is that the neighborhood is located at the edge of Brussels centre. The difference between Brussels centre and the ‘Brabantwijk’ is enormous. In the centre see large office buildings can be seen which cause some kind of “Manhattan- experience.” The contrast between poor and rich is extra highlighted since the ‘Brabantwijk’ exists out of smallbuildings that are often very badly maintained. Every building located in the centre was positioned with its back in the direction of the ‘Brabantwijk’, creating a

mental wall that stresses the difference between the two neighborhoods.

down but nothing ever replaced it, creating unpleasant holes in the area, enhancing the feel of neglection.

Not only is the positioning of the large buildings in the centre the cause of this ‘mental wall’. The railroad that runs between the centre and ‘Brabantwijk’ is build upon a massive wall, turning this already existing ‘mental wall’ in a more physical one.

Besides all the negative aspects, of which this neighborhood has lots of, there are also positive aspects.

The streets are filled with small shops that give you the possibility to taste food from all over the world.

What stands out is that most of the shops are Turkish/ Arabic, so probably they represent the largest group of immigrants within the ‘Brabantwijk.’ The tour also mentioned the Turkish community, which is a very tight community because they derive from the same two villages in Turkey.

On the edge of the Brabantwijk, the prostitution street of Brussels is located. Prostitution in Belgium is Illegal but the government and police allows it. The presence of this takes along several problems (e.g. urinating in public) and is one of the main causes of the nuisance within this area.

There is hardly any vegetation and lots of litter on the streets. It’s a segregated smelly neighborhood that is covered with graffiti which provokes an unsafe and unpleasant feeling. It’s very chaotic and the streets are narrow. The 19th century street plan and infrastructure make the area crowded and full, the houses are small and tall and mostly house several families. The houses are neglected, as well from the outside as from the inside. Some houses are broken

The tour ended in a nice and clean park, with an amazing view. Walking down the streets of the Brabantwijk it is hard to expect that a place such as this would be located within such a neighborhood. Hidden behind several buildings with only a few small entrances, causes this peaceful environment to withdraw from the smelly, dirty, chaotic and unsafe environment that surrounds it.

Conclusion: The problems of the area are rooted much deeper than anticipated. In the research done in the first week, it came clear that the set up of the area itself can be one of the causes of the problems; this also applies for the Brabantwijk. But there are more things like the neglecting by the municipality, 80 different nationalities and the prostitution street, that are causes of the problems of this area.

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ETNOGRAPHY; TIM CASSIERS Within the neighborhood there are a lot of organizations who are running several projects. These projects are focusing more on the livability of the neighborhood, like the maintenance of the houses, the noise nuisance, and unemployment. These organizations are working together with the municipality but most of the times the projects aren’t finished as result that the inhabitants lose their trust in these organizations.

The neighborhood is like an island; it is closed from the outside world, the rest of Brussels. This is caused by the giant wall built around the railway in 1956.

The ‘Brabantwijk’ lies on a hill. Higher on the hill the houses and livability are better. The ‘Brabantstraat’ is a street with a lot of stores and business, there is a lot of movement there because of the traffic and visitors of the shops. A lot of people from outside the neighborhood, and even from outside Brussels and Belgium come to the ‘Brabantstraat’. But beyond that, the neighborhood is an island with no connection to the rest of Brussels. Students, businessmen, Turkisch people and Moroccans are crossing the streets but there is no interaction or connection.

T­ he Turkish community is a very close group in the neighborhood. They live together in one area and created an own community and don’t further interfere with the problems of the neighborhood. An advantage of that is that they don’t cause any problems or nuisance. A disadvantage is that they are hard to reach or approachable.

On the other hand the Moroccans are the opposite of the Turkish community. They cause many more problems and nuisance. Recently there were riots with Moroccans in other parts of Brussels like Sint Jans Molenbeek. But they are interested and act in the politics by showing their opinion and dissatisfaction. They want to get along with the Belgium society, but are not able to reach their standards, causing the dissatisfaction.

The biggest problem of the neighborhood is the unemployment of the people. But this is a problem that can’t be solved with design. This is something for the government.

Conclusion:

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What kind of role does design plays in this neighborhood? Design can bring people together and interact with each other. We can bring the biggest problems of the neighborhood under attention of the government or the inhabitants, because they are not solvable with design.

We want to let people work together on a project that will improve the neighborhood and the social cohesion between the different groups of people. Than the people will participate and have their own influence on the result and will get more confident in the neighborhood.

SAMENLEVINGS OPBOUW SCHAARBEEK; GERALDINE BRUYNEEL Geraldine Bruyneel is a community worker for the ‘Samenlevingsopbouw Schaarbeek’. During the meeting the projects, their methodology, and results of the organization were discussed.

From the meeting it became apparent that there is a tight Turkish community in the area, which knows each other well, eats together and lets their children play together. Turkish children have lots of prejudices against other cultures like the Moroccans. This is caused by the parents because they won’t allow their children to play with children from other cultures. They have to stay in their own safe closed Turkish community.

The advantage of this closed community is that they won’t cause any problem or nuisance. But a disadvantage is that it is very hard to reach these people and get to know their community and visions about the neighborhood.

There are a lot of organizations working in the area, mostly for women and children, focusing on the quality of living and opportunities for education and recreation. The organizations need permission from the municipality to execute their projects. But most of the time the municipality won’t execute any project within the end no results in the neighborhood. Because of that there is a fatalistic attitude towards the municipality and the organizations so it’s getting harder to reach the people and let them participate in projects.

People have a positive attitude towards participation for change, as long as the municipality isn’t the cooperator.

Within the Brabantwijk a multitude of cultures is recognized and respected, but the intercultural contacts mostly stay superficial. A lot of people ‘know each other’ on a superficial level, they know who they are, what they do, but don’t want to create contact on a personal level.

Conclusion: From talking with the experts we gained a lot of insight in how the communities function in the neighborhood and how each community thinks about their situation and their relationships. For example the Turkish community, which makes up most of the Brabantwijk residents, is a tight, but closed community which makes interaction hard. Besides that, we found confirmation for problems found in the other viewpoints.

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HANDING OUT COFFEE Getting in contact with the residents of the ‘Brabantwijk’ is a very valuable way to get to know the attitude of the people, the problems they face, their feelings and opinions about the neighborhood.

Talking to residents is a difficult task to set up, because it either involves extensive planning (private, set up interviews) or extensive field work (interviewing on the streets).By giving the some coffee of tea the people were willing to answer some questions and talk about the problems of the neighborhood. Sometimes they were even so curious that they would come to us themselves. With giving something back to the people, the threshold was reduced.

The biggest problem that the residents of the area faced was the high unemployment rate. Second problem that they mentioned was the ‘Aartschotstraat’ were a lot of prostitution is going on. Tourists will come there and drink alcohol at the bars which results in nuisance and fights at night. The residents proposed some solutions like putting the prostitution away on one central point and decrease the nuisance.

Further the question was asked about the relationships between different cultures or different residents. There came out that there was no interaction with neighbors, and that the people only have contact with people from their own community.

The attitude that is present among the residents is the more people you know, the more troubles you get. So the residents are staying in their own safe community within a big area.

Also the question was asked about the park in the area.

Many people didn’t even know that there was one and they found it more for the youth and children.

The people were very interested in our project and they saw that there were initiatives from outside to improve this neighborhood. Because of that they wanted to share their opinion to help us.

Conclusion: Experiencing the feelings of the residents themselves, and really talking to the people helped to empathize into the residents and create a better awareness about the neighborhood because the feelings and experiences will keep in your memory.

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LECTURE KEES DORST Kees Dorst is one of the co-founders of the ID faculty in Eindhoven.

He talked about his experiences with design out crime in public places. The main message was that safety is the most important thing when you are designing for public places. Make the people feel comfortable living in this neighborhood, make them feel at home.

When the safety feeling is there, they will be able to lay contact and talk to strangers easier. This can be created by guides from the neighborhood, guides on the street etc. .

An assumption about design with and against crime is to make things as tough and strong as it can be. Try to make it as hard for the criminal as possible. But that is not always the case, it is important for a design that it prevents criminality. This can be done in sociable and subtle ways. Making the design useful you are able to prevent vandalism.

Conclusion: After evaluating our process and combining the lecture and knowledge of Kees Dorst, a new vision was created: stimulate people with executing initiatives, bringing initiatives together, and empowering people.

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CONCLUSION The Brabantwijk is a busy multicultural neighborhood that faces several problems. Eighty different cultures are living together on a small area in Brussels, though the interaction between these cultures and the neighborhood is far from active.

The attitude shared by most residents is: “The less people you know, few problems you have.” This attitude has to change to turn the Brabantwijk into an active and vivid neighborhood. Our vision is that participation in activities and events will improve the way of living, as well as make people aware of the added value of being involved. As students we are not in the position to continually organize events and activities. With the use of a system, product or service that should empower the residents and organizations in the neighborhood, we hope to create an active and involved community.

When trying to improve the area with design, you’ll have to have another approach than just fixing the existing problems. The problems are of such a fundamental nature that a design ‘addition’ isn’t able to solve these problems. Therefore we decided to focus on how to help people help themselves.

Vision: Our vision is: “Empowering residents of the ‘Brabantwijk’ so they, themselves, can make a change, rather than being dependant on others.”

By stimulating people to improve their neighborhood we want to create an active and involved community.

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