On our way to more Foodland – News – Architecture Workroom Brussels

The Great Transformation: Flyer for the walking route about Foodland

Open space is scarce, while the needs to fill up this space are numerous: we need housing, recreation, nature, a better climate, and agricultural land – all at the same time. That is especially the case for land in urban environments, such as Brussels. Can we fulfil those needs within the limited space that is available? Our guided walk through the Vogelenzang creek valley illustrates where the possibilities lie and how these are already being embraced.

Vogelenzang is one of the last remaining agricultural areas in the Brussels-Capital Region. As in many places, open space is at risk of disappearing. With that, the opportunity to produce healthy food near the city decreases even more.

With our platform The Great Transformation we developed a guided walk along seven locations in the Vogelenzang, located on the border between Brussels and Flanders. In these places several urgent and innovative collaborations are already rolling up their sleeves for healthy, profitable, and affordable food production.

While walking through the area, we assembled more and more stories and knowledge about Vogelenzang, which together have formed the walking route. Those who joined our previous trips showed us how social housing and socially inspired agricultural models can go hand in hand, how a new generation of farmers is getting ready for the future, and how governments and public institutions can contribute to sustainable local agriculture.

The walk is available online as audio guide, in three languages (EN/FR/NL). We will also be spreading flyers of the walk throughout Brussels.

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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.