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A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Transformations carried out by new residential patterns on urban centralities in Brussels
Similar to other compact European cities, Brussels has to manage on one hand the phenomenological problems inherent to the urban cohabitation of new residential developments with its economical functions; and on the other hand with the requalification of urban central places with a view to administering local and metropolitan affairs. However, Brussels differs from other compact cities because the region is limited by an institutional boundary: this widens the gap between what public urban policies can do and how the process of urbanization, driven by economic and social forces, reorganizes densities and land use beyond political boundaries. Demographics’ projections foresee that Brussels’ inner city population will have risen by 20% by 2030. These projections make it imperative to increase housing and public facilities developments, such as schools; public open spaces and especially public transportation. Meanwhile, Brussels has to create metropolitan facilities able to ensure her position amongst world cities. Twenty years after the creation of Brussels Capital Region in 1989, the system of urban centralities has been changed by new increased density residential patterns and by mixed use development. This means that housing development, which was a weak function in the nineties, became a leading function of the real estate market since 2003, strengthening competition for land use at the inner-city level. In this context, the research aims to: Firstly, show the results gathered from mapping the housing production authorized from 1989 to 2008 and the location of local and metropolitan facilities. Secondly, present empirical evidence of the transformation that has occurred through the application of those new residential patterns in central urban areas originally concerned with economical functions. Last but not least, we propose to discuss how urban design can lead to sustainable cohabitation between residential patterns and multi-scale central places in the light of three methodological figures of urban design: the compact city, the city and its hinterland and the international metropolis and its hinterworld. The hypothesis is that Brussels does not suffer from a lack of space to welcome a surplus of inhabitants, but that the situation requires a capacity to coordinate the three figures of urban design whose urban forms are imbricated and encircled by a political boundary and whose functional and symbolic connections are related to multi-scale territories.
Transformations carried out by new residential patterns on urban centralities in Brussels
Similar to other compact European cities, Brussels has to manage on one hand the phenomenological problems inherent to the urban cohabitation of new residential developments with its economical functions; and on the other hand with the requalification of urban central places with a view to administering local and metropolitan affairs. However, Brussels differs from other compact cities because the region is limited by an institutional boundary: this widens the gap between what public urban policies can do and how the process of urbanization, driven by economic and social forces, reorganizes densities and land use beyond political boundaries. Demographics’ projections foresee that Brussels’ inner city population will have risen by 20% by 2030. These projections make it imperative to increase housing and public facilities developments, such as schools; public open spaces and especially public transportation. Meanwhile, Brussels has to create metropolitan facilities able to ensure her position amongst world cities. Twenty years after the creation of Brussels Capital Region in 1989, the system of urban centralities has been changed by new increased density residential patterns and by mixed use development. This means that housing development, which was a weak function in the nineties, became a leading function of the real estate market since 2003, strengthening competition for land use at the inner-city level. In this context, the research aims to: Firstly, show the results gathered from mapping the housing production authorized from 1989 to 2008 and the location of local and metropolitan facilities. Secondly, present empirical evidence of the transformation that has occurred through the application of those new residential patterns in central urban areas originally concerned with economical functions. Last but not least, we propose to discuss how urban design can lead to sustainable cohabitation between residential patterns and multi-scale central places in the light of three methodological figures of urban design: the compact city, the city and its hinterland and the international metropolis and its hinterworld. The hypothesis is that Brussels does not suffer from a lack of space to welcome a surplus of inhabitants, but that the situation requires a capacity to coordinate the three figures of urban design whose urban forms are imbricated and encircled by a political boundary and whose functional and symbolic connections are related to multi-scale territories.
Transformations carried out by new residential patterns on urban centralities in Brussels
2011-01-01
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
New Urban Centralities: Universities as a Paradigm for a Sustainable City
| Springer Verlag | 2023