Ten municipalities invest in green-blue urban networks – News – Architecture Workroom Brussels

Green-blue networks

Ten Flemish municipalities take the lead in the development of green-blue urban planning and climate adaptation. This is part of ‘Green-blue Arteries in the built-up space’, a call for projects within the context of the Flemish government's Blue Deal and ‘Vlaanderen Breekt Uit!’ of the Open Space Platform. Within this trajectory AWB will take on the role of process coordinator, putting emphasis on raising the ambitions of the projects and gathering the knowledge gained.

The municipalities of Menen, Harelbeke, Izegem, Geraardsbergen, Antwerpen, Vorselaar, Kontich, Landen, Boutersem en Genk are taking the next step towards a less paved Flanders, leaving more room for greenery and water. Thanks to the open call ‘Green-blue networks in built space’ the municipalities will start working on climate adaptive projects, in which they will gather and share knowledge concerning measures, methods and collaborations. In this way the municipalities will become pioneers in desealing and climate adaptation.

Two generations of Pilot Projects Desealing lay the basis for Green-blue Networks. However, this trajectory aims to tackle more difficult questions such as preventing the re-increase of hardened surfaces or rethinking financial reasoning. We will work on forming coalitions and making ambitious designs, but will also support towards future-proof realisation and management of projects.

In close collaboration with a group of design supervisors, experts, desealing scanners and the Flemish Department of Environment, AWB supervises the ten municipalities to develop necessary practices and accumulate the knowledge gained. With ‘Green-blue networks in built space’ we are working towards the multiplication of innovative strategies concerning climate adaptive, green-blue planning.

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Since 2010, Architecture Workroom Brussels has focused on the future of our living environment. The organisation began as a safe haven to address the link between space and societal transitions, aimed at fostering a futureproof design practice, commissioning and building culture.

It has now become evident that the transformation of our streets, neighbourhoods, and landscapes is both a prerequisite and a lever for achieving societal goals in synergy. Yet we observe that these transformations remain difficult to imagine and implement. They span so many sectors and involve so many actors that responsibility falls on everyone, and therefore, ultimately, on no one.

That is why we make it our mission to create the space that connects them. And with this refined mission comes a new name: WORKROOM, House for transformation. WORKROOM is the shared space where the future of our living environment is not only imagined but also organised.

We are currently taking the lead on three mission-driven transformations:

SOCIETAL INCUBATORS - By 2030, stakeholders from the youth, culture, sports, care and education sectors will join forces to create renewed societal spaces that tackle loneliness and counteract the fragmentation and pressure on public infrastructure.
FOSSIL-FREE NEIGHBOURHOODS - By 2030, at least ten neighbourhoods will be underway with the transition to fossil-free energy in an inclusive and affordable way, with a view to completely phase-out fossil fuels by 2040.
SPONGE LANDSCAPES - By 2030, we will have achieved our water, agriculture and nature goals through a single, coherent approach at catchment area level, in which strong regional coalitions collectively enhance the landscape's sponge capacity.

To make these transformations a reality, WORKROOM works shoulder to shoulder with pioneering designers, local authorities, organisations and businesses, governments, knowledge institutions and impact investors.

Through co-creative design, we imagine shared pathways to the future in exhibitions, publications, innovation programmes and public programmes. These are the workrooms where we connect the actors capable of realising these transformations. From there, we design shared ownership and the organisational, funding and policy models that lead to real change.

The name is simpler. The stakes are higher. WORKROOM is the shared space where we tackle the social and spatial transformations that no one can achieve alone. In an era of polarisation, compartmentalisation and instability, that is perhaps the most radical thing we can do.