TOWARDS A METROPOLITAN CITY CENTRE FOR BRUSSELS

Synopsis

Between 2015 and 2020, the city centre of Brussels witnessed the creation of its first major pedestrian zone, one of the largest urban projects in recent decades. The boulevards between place Fontainas and place De Brouckère are now car free. New public spaces, greenery, benches and lighting have been installed, as well as new entrances for metro stations, two large bicycle parks and other facilities. Has the Brussels city centre finally done away with the car hegemony? Can the city centre be extended to become the centre of the Brussels metropolis where everyone can find his or her own place? This book presents scientific background to the issue and brings together in words and images the research carried out over the past four years by the Brussels Centre Observatory. The BCO is a platform for knowledge exchange of 70 researchers, established in 2015 as a part of the Brussels Studies Institute with the support of the City of Brussels. This research has been realized thanks to the support of Innoviris, Brussels Mobility, perspective.brussels, the Forum des Vies Mobiles, the FNRS and the VGC, and with the cooperation of many partners including BOZAR, the team of the Brussels master architect, the Brussels Academy, Architecture Workroom Brussels, and the urban movements BRAL, Atelier Groot Eiland, Welkom op de Kleine Ring and many others. Since 2012, the work of the Brussels Studies Institute has facilitated the development of integrated and multi-perspective knowledge about Brussels by encouraging collaboration between researchers and experts of highly varying profiles to address the metropolitan societal challenges. The BSI sets great store by the wide dissemination, promotion and debate of research results. The BSI series is one of the communication channels aiming at making available the research results of the BSI.

Table of contents

  Table of contents

Specifications

Sofie Vermeulen

Jean-Philippe De Visscher

Aniss M. Mezoued