A COMMON VISION FOR THE BRUSSELS METROPOLITAN CITY CENTRE BEYOND THE PENTAGON

Vanin, Fabio;De Visscher, Jean-Philippe;Mezoued, Aniss;Vermeulen, Sofie
(2020) Towards a metropolitan city centre for Brussels — ISBN: [978-2-8004-1713-4], p. 243-274, published

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Abstract
This article proposes an open vision for the Brussels metropolitan city centre. It serves as a framework for a working method for developing design initiatives that are project-oriented and focus on testing, evaluating, adapting and implementing such a vision at different scales in the Brussels extended metropolitan centre. It summarizes the results of the international master class ‘Zoom in | Zoom out – Brussels hypercentre: from pedestrian area to urban project’ organized by the BSI-BCO and perspective.brussels in January and February 2018. The authors propose a detailed interpretation of the metropolitan centre as a hypercentre, based on an ongoing interdisciplinary research process within the BSI – BCO. They also present the working method research-by-design and the results of the project-based research conducted by the participants. This creates a more global vision for the metropolitan centre, based on three strategic guidelines: 1) expanding the perimeter with the circle-shaped metro-loop (line 2), the Brussels Canal Charleroi-Antwerp and the central railway stations; 2) structuring the metropolitan centre around a network of public spaces that are beneficial for soft mobility and ecological system services; 3) developing support programs for a cosmopolitan urban culture. The chapter illustrates possible sustainable scenarios for the spatial and programmatic structuring of the future metropolitan centre, of which the pedestrian zone will be a part.
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Vanin, F., De Visscher, J.-P., Mezoued, A., & Vermeulen, S. (2020). A COMMON VISION FOR THE BRUSSELS METROPOLITAN CITY CENTRE BEYOND THE PENTAGON. In Sofie Vermeulen, Aniss M. Mezoued, Jean-Philippe De Visscher (ed.), Towards a metropolitan city centre for Brussels (EUB & VUBPRESS, p. p. 243-274). Editions de l’Université de Bruxelles et VUBPRESS. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/228222