The project for the development of public spaces in the historic heart of Schaerbeek is the "flagship" operation of the Pogge Sustainable Neighborhood Contract led by the municipality through RenovaS.
Adopting the proposal of "reclaiming public space" programmed by the basic file of the CQD (Alive Architecture & Taktyk 2017-2018), the project invests a sequence of public spaces that from Place Colignon to Avenue Louis Bertrand, passing through the Pogge and Houffalize squares, reinforces the links of this densely inhabited neighborhood with Josaphat Park. This sequence of open spaces is accompanied by a series of emblematic buildings, each of which in its own way reflects the different moments in the construction of the district: the Hôtel Communal, the Ecuries van de Tram, the communal basins of the Neptunium and finally the Brusilia tower.
The participation work carried out beforehand with the inhabitants and more specifically with the schools of the district revealed a great difficulty of the users to appropriate the open spaces: discomfort, insecurity, incivilities are often evoked and translate by these negative aspects a burning lack of conviviality! This perception also reveals a great fragmentation of the public spaces of the district, which most of the time seems to be a real obstacle course to cross. In response to this observation, the project proposes to link them in the form of a walk, a real thread of the project that offers the opportunity to recreate physical and social links by articulating different strong ambitions for the neighborhood:
- Strengthen the presence of nature in the city;
- Strengthening the availability and accessibility of public transport and shared mobility for all;
- Strengthen the place of pedestrians and cyclists and their crossing of the district;
- Regulate the presence of the automobile with respect to the standards of the Good Move Plan;
Articulating these ambitions, the project is materialized in the form of a redesign of the grounds that reinforces the continuity and legibility of public spaces, favors their appropriation and reinforces their environmental qualities.
