The Productive Valley, Charleroi

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THE PRODUCTIVE VALLEY a longitudinal experience of exchanges MASTER OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS MASTER OF URBANISM AND STRATEGIC PLANNING

In a valley structured by a stream and an industrial landscape, improving the ground’s quality activates new productive exchanges between Cité Parc social housing and its up- and downstream surroundings. A training and research line is stretched all along the gentle mobility path: extending the university campus upstream on an over-sized parking lot, reactivating industrial pockets downstream into diverse urban places, and occasionally taking place in the Bois du Cazier’s museum. In-between a sport and leisure system, food and flowers are grown in Cité Parc by a cooperative empowering unemployed or retired inhabitants, developing commercial exchanges with outsiders and embellishing the overall image of the site. Empty apartments accommodate students and seasonal workers to increase the social diversity.

85% of unemployment Lack of SOCIAL INTERACTION/connection in between without relation to its SURROUNDING

CAR-BASEDsystem

Unseen, bottom of a VALLEY, bad accessibility nothing happens Diversity of ages, origins – neighborhood issue social housing scaled to the topography around large scale infrastructures/activities that have NO POSITIVE IMPACT on Cité Parc

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VALLEY analysis: 1. Open spaces’ quality & public facilities

85% UNEMPLOYMENT Lack of diversity/mixity (about 1600 people – 900 housings)

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2. Industrial past of the valley

Lack of MAINTENANCE/sense of belonging Huge MEANINGLESSopen space – semi public/semi-private?

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Cité Parc social housing is located in a valley with an industrial past. From the green suburbs of Charleroi to the denser urban tissue of Marcinelle a former railway line and a water stream structure the low landscape and link public facilities with different sizes and audiences to each other. Cité Parc is a blend of high, low rise buildings, and private houses organized on a large green space. Double roads and dead ends define the car-based system on which Cité Parc were build in the 60’s and 70’s. Most of the 1600 to 2000 inhabitants are unemployed or retired. Many families are led by a single mother. A general lack of maintenance expresses no feeling of belonging to the common areas. The huge open space has no strong function and its current state seems to divide the area in two rather than to unify.

Market demand

Claire Bosmans & Vinh Tran Trung

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Viviana d’Auria, Géraldine Lacasse, Verena Lenna, Jeanne Mosseray, Tine Van Herck

( RE )-IN

THE BIG, THE BAD AND THE UGLY ? Building the 21st Century City by re-thinking the modernist utopias Studio Concepts & Analysis - Charleroi - Fall 2014

PROCESS & COMMERCE

STRATEGY scheme: Exchanges and productivity

3. Public and private spaces

At the heart of the valley Cité Parc’s open spaces and emptiness present the opportunity to initiate productive exchanges between up- and downstream elements especially by upgrading the ground’s quality.

STRATEGY map: the Productive Valley

ORCHARD / ANIMALS AGROFORESTRY WILDFLOWER MEADOW / CEREAL FIELD GRASS MEADOW / TEMP. SPORT FIELD FLOWER FIELD

SOCIAL HOUSING analysis: 1. Places of social activity on Cité Parc children adults/elderly

2. Inhabitants of Cité Parc and their buildings

CONCEPT & RESEARCHES: Seasonal Evolution in the Productivity and Use of the Ground

14 m Walnut Trees 2 ha 10 m Cherry Trees 0.4 ha 8-10 m Peer/Apple Trees 1.6 ha 6-4 m Plum Trees 0.15 ha

Layer 1: Water Management & Topography

Layer 2: Orchards, Trees and Forests

Layer 3: Mobility - the longitudinal axis

Layer 4: Uses (Orchards, Farming, Leisure, Flowers, Research)

ORCHARDS Capital: €€€€€ Profit: €€€€€€€€€€€€€€€ Employment:

4-6 m 20 m

AGROFORESTRY Capital: € Profit: €€€ Employment:

HONEY BEES Capital: €€ Profit: €€€€€€ Employment:

3-12 m < 20 m FLOWERS FIELD Capital: €€€ Profit: €€€€€€ Employment:

Cité Parc’s map: In-between a sport and leisure system, food and flowers are grown in Cité Parc by a cooperative empowering unemployed or retired inhabitants gentle mobility line

car wash

garage

Use of space at a high rise building’s ground floor From the facade to the backyard: flower field, leisure system, orchard

to city center

water stream

recycled playground

Section in an industrial pocket in the dense urban tissue: the reconversion of a cars’ cemetery into a urban square Car wash & recycled playground on open spaces, cultural hub and second hand market in empty warehouses. local road

danse school

flower field

greenhouses

wildflower meadow

gentle mobility line, water stream

food market, outdoor theatre

Section in Cité Parc: the activation and embellishing of the social housing facade Flower field on open spaces, greenhouses on former road, food market & outdoor theatre on former parking lot Agriculture

gentle mobility line, water stream

training & research center, café

agricultural practice

open ground floor

Section in Condorcet High School campus: the new training and research center on an over-sized parking lot

Bois du Cazier museum

Lecture’s rooms

UPSTREAM A new horticulture school and its research department on the Condorcet university campus, partially invading and transforming the over-sized parking lot. IN CITÉ PARC, along the valley The gentle mobility line and local cuttings on the road system emphasize the longitudinal dynamic of the valley. Food and flowers grown by a cooperative empowering unemployed or retired inhabitants, developing commercial exchanges with outsiders and embellishing the overall image of the site. Empty apartments accommodate students and seasonal workers to increase the social diversity. A diverse leisure system mixing ages through the social housing area. Some rooms of the Bois du Cazier’s museum for lectures organized either by the university, the social housing cooperative or the working hubs of the valley. DOWNSTREAM Industrial pockets connect the productive valley to the city through the conversion of empty warehouses into leisure, commercial, cultural and working places. While developing a bigger system along the valley by improving the quality of opens space in term of view and use for outsiders and insiders, the intervention also aims to affect the feeling of belonging and pride of the inhabitants and eventually work for a better maintenance of the common areas.

Longitudinal reading of the interventions on the valley’s ground

4 Seasons in Cité Parc: place of productivities


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