Studio Rotterdam Academie van Bouwkunst

How can we rethink the stress on public space in the car-dominated Brussels Heyvaert neighbourhood? The European capital is characterised by an eclectic form of urbanism, diversity of cultures, inner-city activity and dominance of automobility. In the Anderlecht district of Brussels, these characters converge; a compacted commuter district with car dealerships and industry, where there is a need to redistribute public space. By putting car infrastructure first, there is a lack of spaces that provide space for nature.

We focus on designing a site-specific intervention that interacts with the environment and focuses on a non-human or non-dominant entity within the urban landscape. We take this perspective as a new benchmark to start designing in order to strategically put a spatial-social task on the agenda. In doing so, we use the 'dérive' methodology; this psychogeographical method originates from Situationism in the form of the walk, to unprejudicedly map emotionally experienced situations in an urban area. We record these experiences in a subjective map and video, and lead to a design intervention worked out in model scale 1:20.