BxL.sorry we are working on it

kea fredrikkevej 8

-10 /

specialization

exam

2013 /

kira

van

den ende /

sustainable com

munication

the identity of bxl.

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The Plan

The intent is to give the inhabitants of Brussels a sense of identification with their city, which they popularly refer to as BXL. There are five parametersto obtain this: create something that is crowd-sourced, very visible in the city, able to change over time, not an easy prey for vandalism and that includes green space.

How: transformation of an area of the city that has been in decay for years, as indicated on image 1. The area consists of two land lots. The biggest is approximately 1 km long and 150 m wide. At the moment it is inaccessable for citizens (the side of it is shown in image 2). It is divided into two by a train track (image 3) and the only thing connecting both sides is a damp and rather smelly bridge (image 4). The smaller land lot is 70 by 160 m and apart from a small occupied squad it is completely empty(image 5).

Handling the Train Track

The train track has to be dealt with in a way that is economically achievable.The idea for how to do this is shown on page 2.

Crowd-sourcing

To ensure that the space meets the needs of the people who will use it, the precise contents of the park will be designed by an architect agency in collaboration with the citizens of Brussels.

How: organization of a 100 in 1 day event. 100 in 1 day is an event that was firstorganized in Bogotá. The idea of the organizers was to get the people of Bogotá to pour their dreams for their city into urban interventions and execute at least a100 of them in 1 single day. When organizing this event in Brussels, the nature ofthese interventions can be used as an inspiration for the content of the park. The event can be repeated every ten years, and the content of the park can beadjusted accordingly.Promotional material for 100 in day in Brussels are to be seen on page 3-6. They are made in the city’s official languages: French and Dutch, and English, to reachthe biggest amount of people possible.

Building a Cultural Center

The park has to become a space for people to unite. To facilitate this,a cultural center can be build in the smaller lot. The concept of this culturalcenter is explained on page 7.

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handling the train track

the identity of bxl.

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The train track divides the area in pieces of about 50 and 80 m wide. They have to be handled in some way that allows the park to be used safely and without noise disturbance. The smallest half is used for train and metro maintenance, so the park will only be situated in the other, bigger half.The city has just invested a large amount of money into the reparation of these tracks, to be able to transport people and freight quicker through the city. It is thus no option to stop using the tracks and redirect the trains.

times. On the other side, the side that the train passengers see, it can have illustrations of interiors - all kinds of interiors that are found in Brussels, going from Victor Horta lounges to simple family kitchens. However, this wall is going to be 1 km long, and its purpose is not to separate two areas of the city over the whole of this distance. That’s why, where the train wagons and houses have the windows, the wall will have windows too:

Building a tunnel to let the trains go underground is not an option either, because it’s exceedingly expensive and the ground in this area is already full with 3 metro tracks.

An alternative solution is to build a soundproof wall of at least 3.5 m high. This wall doesn’t have to be grey and boring. On the side towards the park it can have illustrations of train wagons from all around the world and all

identity of bxl. / promoting 100 in 1 day

at a viewpointin the subway

Stuff that made me smile on the metro this morning.100in1day.be

What would you like to see?100in1day.be

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identity of bxl. / promoting 100 in 1 day

in a traffic jamon grey walls

Do you like this shade of grey?100in1day.be

(right)signpost: progressfront of billboard: 100in1day-logoback of billboard: 100in1day.be

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identity of bxl. / promoting 100 in 1 day

website

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logos

specialization exam 2013 / kira van den ende / the identity of bxl.

The concept behind the cultural center is for it to be a house of activities that represent the population of Brussels.

The precise sport, music, theatre, etc. related activities can, like the rest of the park, be inspired by the 100 in 1 day event. They can change over time so that the will always represent the people’s interest, and not just at start off.

However, there are three things that the author of this piece finds should aways be present. The first is a language school. Brus-sels has two official languages, but the latest survey has shown that 104 different languages are spoken in Brussels’ households. In order for people to understand each other, they should have easy acces to learning each others’ language.

The second is room to host the Brussels Academy. Brussels Academy is a citizen-

focused urban university with the goal of making the city together. They make infor-mation about the city available to the civil society through classes, and hold workshop to do something constructive with this informa-tion.

The third and last nesecity is room to host initiatives such as the G1000. The aim of the G1000 is to consult citizens in order to make political recomendations. In other words, they are looking for a way to organize democracy in a more modern, more parcipi-tory method.

Brussels Academy and G1000 both represent what this bxl. project was about: empowering the people to define the identity of the their environment, so that in turn, they can identify with it.

cultural center

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