Claiming Safe Streets for Livable Cities

BY ANNEKATRIEN VERDICKT

How a citizen movement of parents of schoolchildren wanting clean air, safe streets, and more livable cities led to a nonprofit organization empowering architects and urbanists to show how the city could evolve.

Architects have a double role. On the one hand, we are practicing architects with a commission. We have a question, and you try to answer it as best as you can, taking into account all climatic and mobility challenges in your project. That is what we are doing at Architectuurplatform Terwecoren Verdickt. On the other hand, we have taken up a new role with Filter Café Filtré Atelier, and that’s an agenda-setting role where we ask for vision and a higher ambition, where there is no question or project. Society is our client.

The second part started for us in 2018. A report on TV was talking about how bad the air quality was both outside and inside school environments. That really struck us. So we had a meeting with other parents, and we decided to close down the street and protest. We invited the press and politicians. It was much bigger than we could have imagined. It was everywhere in the press, on television, in newspapers. It was such a success.

We knew we had to repeat this. So we then created a manifesto of 11 points where we wanted to see change: more public space, more public transport, better transport, more traffic safety, fewer cars, more measuring stations where you monitor the air quality, and so on. We did a call to action to other schools and asked for additional protests. Politicians love to come to our actions and drink coffee (that’s our name, Filter Café Filtré), and we explain what we want.

The movement grew, and in the end, we had 170 schools. We saw a lot of creative actions coming up. We had someone who made the most beautiful and most creative actions. We also posted a lot of information online so that people could be more informed about topics surrounding air quality.

We also had some bigger actions. For one, we gathered all the schools in the most dangerous and polluted space in Brussels. For another, we closed down the highway and biked from Antwerp to Brussels. Wim Vandekeybus’ Ultima Vez, a famous choreographer, made a protest dance. All the schools practiced this, and we did it together in the center of Brussels.

After a while, a lot of architects and urbanists got involved in the movement, and so we created a workshop called Air for Schools, where we invited all these people that were standing every Friday closing down the streets to create dreamlike images of places in Brussels, along canals, in front of schools, busy traffic streets, and more. We imagined how the city could evolve and become more healthy and livable.

In Molenbeek, a really dense part of Brussels, a lot of children live in small-scale

Rue Picardstraat, Brussels, Belgium

Filter Café Filtré Atelier imagined what this busy street in Brussels could look like without cars.

Brussels Canal Zone

Filter Café Filtré and Architecture Workroom Brussels worked together on a green plan for the Brussels Canal Zone.

© FILTER CAFÉ FILTRÉ ATELIER

Annekatrien Verdickt

Founder, Filter Café Filtré Atelier

Brussels, Belgium

Annekatrien Verdickt graduated cum laude as an architect from Sint Lucas Brussels in 2000. Parallel to her independent practice, she has committed herself to social housing in Brussels. After meeting Jan Terwecoren, they decided to work together and formed Architectuurplatform Terwecoren Verdickt in 2019. Part of the work concerns projects between city and port and focuses on the productive city. She is also a visiting professor at the University of Ghent.

apartments without gardens. In summer of 2020, we decided to open up the street and organize some low-tech activities. What we saw was incredible. From the moment the street was opened, you saw everybody coming out. It’s a diverse area with a lot of cultures. Normally, the street is full of cars, and there is no social interaction. But children were playing in the streets. Older people came out and talked to each other. This was quite impressive what happened that summer.

Again, we did a co-creative workshop where we imagined the future. By adding this image after the experiments of people experiencing what it means when there are fewer or no cars in the street, they believe this image is possible.

The work of doing these two elements together—the imagination and the actions— is important. We strongly believe that the street is a key space for transition. So all these challenges—climate, social, etc.—are all coming together in the streets. You can see the underground as a tool to extract energy. You can plant trees to reduce heat stress. You can manage your water problems.

This summer, we wanted to multiply what we did the first year in Picardstraat and went to other streets in Brussels. We collaborated with the cultural institutions and did some performances in the street.

The last event we did is called Critical Friends. We have a broad network of people who really want to take action about how the city could evolve. We had a big meeting where we gathered everybody around the table. We did 10 thematic tables, where we are thinking about what we can do. We will use it for the coming year and upcoming actions.

We know that we still have to do something about air quality. We know about the climate challenges. But still, there is not enough happening. So this is a call to everybody to take action and do what needs to be done.