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European quarter
European quarter
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Other Projects by Jordi Farrando, architect
European quarter
The European
Quarter
The urban
project for the European quarter of Brussels, commissioned by the
Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet of the Minister-President
of the Brussels-Capital Region, sets out to develop an overall
urbanistic concept for the district that will strike a balance
between the different functions and actors established in the area.
The diversity of uses and activities is seen as a mechanism to
strengthen integration with the remaining territory of a district
that is almost given over to European institutions.
This urban
project is, then, neither a planning figure to reformulate the basic
parameters of land use, nor an isolated architecture project seeking
a definitive image for the enclave. It is an action programme that
identifies the themes of reflection and puts forward specific actions
for the introduction of an overall urbanistic concept.
The European
quarter is, today, a territory of paradox. Though it is recognised as
a major challenge for the Brussels region, there is no overview that
addresses it in its entirety. Despite the forceful presence of
important European institutions, its overall image registers a very
low value. It is overburdened with communications networks but
lacking in spatial links between its different parts. It has green
spaces of considerable size that are difficult to access due to
infrastructural or morphological obstacles. It attracts large numbers
of European citizens but has few symbolic spaces with which they can
identify. Finally, despite having local heritage-rich amenities, it
does not make the most of their potential.
It is a fragmented territory as
regards both its spatial logic and the decision-making levels
operating on it, in which the Maalbeek valley constitutes a line
separating Luxembourg Square and Leopold Park, where the European
Parliament stands, from Schuman Roundabout, with the Commission and
the Council of Ministers. It is an isolated district, which partakes
little in the spatial and functional structure that characterized the
city’s urban dynamic; where the limits of infrastructure,
morphology and topography define independent elements that establish
an interrelation of contraposition. And it is a territory that
contains within it two clear sub-territories: the Leopold district, a
compact urban fabric organized around a grid system, and the valley,
characterized by a logic of open implantation of large-scale
buildings and complexes.
Given this
complex situation, the central aim of the project is to enhance the
European quarter by formalizing a positive identity for the valley
and anchoring the quarter in the urban context of Brussels. Three
principles underlie the intervention: polarity, regarded as a
multiplication of centralities that underpin a new balanced network;
diversity, conceived as a principle of complementarity to guarantee
sustainability; and intensity as a principle that allows the quarter
to develop according to sensible dimensions that vary according to
place and time.
This conceptual
volume materializes in a spatial hypothesis that organizes both the
valley and the Leopold district, and the European quarter as a whole
and the outlying districts.
By means of a
series of “notebooks” (Urban life, Diversity, European
institutions, Public spaces, Mobility, Security), the project
identifies the aspects of the quarter to be reconsidered, analyses
existing problems, defines sectoral aims, suggests actions to be
taken (physical, social, cultural, legal, fiscal and technical), and
establishes the time line for their implementation according to
priorities and the consequences that one action may have for another.
A final notebook (Implementation) defines the organizational,
political and technical mechanisms required to carry out the project.
Quarter
The urban
project for the European quarter of Brussels, commissioned by the
Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet of the Minister-President
of the Brussels-Capital Region, sets out to develop an overall
urbanistic concept for the district that will strike a balance
between the different functions and actors established in the area.
The diversity of uses and activities is seen as a mechanism to
strengthen integration with the remaining territory of a district
that is almost given over to European institutions.
This urban
project is, then, neither a planning figure to reformulate the basic
parameters of land use, nor an isolated architecture project seeking
a definitive image for the enclave. It is an action programme that
identifies the themes of reflection and puts forward specific actions
for the introduction of an overall urbanistic concept.
The European
quarter is, today, a territory of paradox. Though it is recognised as
a major challenge for the Brussels region, there is no overview that
addresses it in its entirety. Despite the forceful presence of
important European institutions, its overall image registers a very
low value. It is overburdened with communications networks but
lacking in spatial links between its different parts. It has green
spaces of considerable size that are difficult to access due to
infrastructural or morphological obstacles. It attracts large numbers
of European citizens but has few symbolic spaces with which they can
identify. Finally, despite having local heritage-rich amenities, it
does not make the most of their potential.
It is a fragmented territory as
regards both its spatial logic and the decision-making levels
operating on it, in which the Maalbeek valley constitutes a line
separating Luxembourg Square and Leopold Park, where the European
Parliament stands, from Schuman Roundabout, with the Commission and
the Council of Ministers. It is an isolated district, which partakes
little in the spatial and functional structure that characterized the
city’s urban dynamic; where the limits of infrastructure,
morphology and topography define independent elements that establish
an interrelation of contraposition. And it is a territory that
contains within it two clear sub-territories: the Leopold district, a
compact urban fabric organized around a grid system, and the valley,
characterized by a logic of open implantation of large-scale
buildings and complexes.
Given this
complex situation, the central aim of the project is to enhance the
European quarter by formalizing a positive identity for the valley
and anchoring the quarter in the urban context of Brussels. Three
principles underlie the intervention: polarity, regarded as a
multiplication of centralities that underpin a new balanced network;
diversity, conceived as a principle of complementarity to guarantee
sustainability; and intensity as a principle that allows the quarter
to develop according to sensible dimensions that vary according to
place and time.
This conceptual
volume materializes in a spatial hypothesis that organizes both the
valley and the Leopold district, and the European quarter as a whole
and the outlying districts.
By means of a
series of “notebooks” (Urban life, Diversity, European
institutions, Public spaces, Mobility, Security), the project
identifies the aspects of the quarter to be reconsidered, analyses
existing problems, defines sectoral aims, suggests actions to be
taken (physical, social, cultural, legal, fiscal and technical), and
establishes the time line for their implementation according to
priorities and the consequences that one action may have for another.
A final notebook (Implementation) defines the organizational,
political and technical mechanisms required to carry out the project.
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