Thus the city within

National Bank of Belgium, Brussels Graduation Project - Interiors, Buildings, cities(TU Delft)

A palatial building rests by Rue de Bois Sauvage of Brussels, an intimate street located at the exact point where the lower historic city ends and upper bureaucratic city starts. The Palace remains like a parasite of a larger introverted structure that fortifies an entire urban block to hide the offices of the National Bank of Belgium. The architectural brief for this graduation project requests the renovation of the headquarters concerning the vacancy of office space with the greater intention of opening up the National Bank as an institution. To the light of this brief, this architectural thesis departs from the premise that in order for the Bank to open up it must get engaged in the problems of its nearby reality, the problems of the city of Brussels.

The in depth analysis of the history of urban transformation of the city of Brussels led by land speculation, revealed the problems of the Central European capital cities during the second half of the 19th century, which have been unavoidably inherited by the city of the 21st century. The process of urban gentrification of the historic town, firstly by pushing out the working classes to the periphery in favour of the wealthy bourgeois and secondly exploiting land value financially erasing any hint of residential life from the old city at the heart of Brussels’ Pentagon. The result of these consecutive processes of urban transformation can be read in space through the architectural typology of Brussels and have been explained in this research by means of the alley, the shopping arcade, the corner building and the blocks of Brusselization. Understanding them not only as architectural devices but also as urban figures has helped untangling the history of urban gentrification in Brussels which constructed through time a division between the rich bureaucratic upper eastern city and the working class neighbourhoods in lower western Brussels, articulated by a touristic uninhabited historic city where the National Bank of Belgium sits. More than anywhere else, Bd Berlaimont and the building of the NBB are examples of this urban transformation that has emptied from the residential life of this area of Brussels. In a process that anticipated Brusselization, the NBB made sure to erase a mixed block where housing and retail used to make a piece of the city to turn it into a monolithic impenetrable office block. This essential aspect of the site, together with the research make a project with three fundamental intentions:

- Create a public route able to establish another point of connection between upper and lower Brussels, increasing the porosity of the city and the permeability of an existing urban structure. - Reprogram the block to revert the process of Brusselization and erode its monolithic nature through the introduction of residential and retail functions. - Maximise the value of the land property which is currently owned by the NBB to launch a program of affordable housing capable of setting a starting point to revert the process of gentrification and land speculation that has historically threatened the process of urban transformation of the city.

These three points become the nexus between the conclusions of the research and the design decisions that followed the P2 and P3 examinations. Therefore the final design proposal is concerned with each of these aspects, from the scale of the building mass and how it is oriented towards the city, to the scale of a service staircase that tries to create a partition situation between two different programs embedded in the block.

Ultimately, the project envisions an urban transformation led by the National Bank of Belgium where the use of land property, the State of the Bank, is key to face land speculation and control housing prices. The unavoidable typology of Brussels, (impasse, arcade and corner building) builds a city within the ruin of the Palace of the National Bank of Belgium.

Urban route Partition situation

reprogram the block

Partition situation reprogram the block

The Bank’s estate use of land property

Urban Route. The city 1:1500 Sequenze of public interiors connecting the lower historic city and the upper burocratic city through the city blocks owned by the NBB starting at the lower Musee de la Banque.

Renovation of the NBB. The Palace 1:50 Intervention at both corners, the entrance of the NBB looking to the square of the Cathedral and a residential corner building overlooking the boulevard. In the interior, galleries make the raised courts liveable and staircase allow the public route to reach the upper city.

Renovation of the NBB. The Palace

The route goes through a passage, the innercourt and the forgotten entrance of the old palace. It is the spine of the social plinth of the NBB. In the upper floor the offices of the Bank, the dwellings of its housing program and exhibition space in the old palace are part of this city within.

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Reprogramming the block. The interior 1:1000 1:200 1:150 A partition situation (1) on the existing plan allows to reprogram the block. On plan the offices of the NBB take most of the floor surface, the housing program takes place in the public inner courts and eastern facade. The plinth is taken over by city functions such as retail, municipal sports facilities or the library of the NBB. To provide housing in the existing structure of the innerblock, gallery apartments with double height (2) connect both southern and northern facades, projecting the living spaces towards the most public court and the private spaces towards the court of galleries.

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Reprogramming the block. The interior

Fragment of the Palace of the NBB that exemplifies the collision of program in one of these partition situations necessary to make the city within. The Library of the NBB (1), the Auditorium of the NBB (2), the swimming pool for the municipality (3), the offices (4) and the housing (5) above the courts.

Reprogramming the block. The interior

Fragment of the fragment. A symbol for the harmony between the Bank and its housing program. Two interlocking staircases for the office workers and the neighbours of the block where both flows could move up without ever meeting.

Reprogramming the block. The interior 1:200 Reuse of the existing structure to accomodate new program. Introduction of precast reinforcement concrete elements and insulation of load bearing elements.

THE CONCISE CITYSCAPE