Open space in Brussels

Project name: Ursulines square

Place: 1000 Brussels

Client: Institut Bruxellois de Gestion de l'Environnement IBGE / Brussels Instituut voor Milieubeheer BIM

Architects: L’Escaut

Landscape architects: Bjorn Gielen (LandInZicht), Floris Steyaert

Project management and social mediation: Recyclart asbl

Year: 2006

Location:

Shortly after the South station, as it passes the Ursulines station, the junction goes underground. The site is located above the entrance to the tunnel. For decades, the site was a tendered grass field, with no particular landscape value; a few bushes on the limit with the junction, a few poplars to the side, and an open field.

Goal:

The goal was to create an active space in the site of the Ursulines square, and all young architects, art students, architecture and landscape design (all under 25) were invited to participate.

Different zones occupy the whole square, according to what happens underground. Over the tunnel a mineral environment offers natural slopes and long ramps up to 45° for skating. At the intersection of the two ramps, the bowl becomes a paroxystic point, where looks and pirouettes converge. Even before being completed, the skate park and the bowl have gained international reputation as a great skating spot, as well as a welcoming space where skaters can share their culture as a testimony of art and social behaviour.

The lack of depth of the soil has induced a small amount of low vegetations. These create welcoming spaces, enhanced by the wooden furniture that is made with the same wood as the terrace. At the terrace people can pause as the wooden floor keeps it skate-free. Soft and hard materials converge: stone, wood and steel. All behaviours are allowed. A drinking fountain invites all users to relax.

In the park people can rest and meet each other.

Openess in a city of bubbles?

Recyclart has coordinated the whole project development and its social aspects. Amongst other things, they've organised a number of informative sessions with the neighbours, workshops with the prospective users, classes of skateboarding for kids. They have also organised an opening festival that took place on The 30th of April, with skating demonstrations, activities for young people and elders, music shows...

Taking into account all the different users and the listening well to the neighborhood, you can reach different ‘bubbles’. In this way you can create a space or platform for interaction and meeting each other at all kind of levels.

More information: www.escaut.org