Project

Regeneration of Zeebrugge

To steer the concept for the Regeneration of Zeebrugge urban renewal project, the City of Bruges appointed a design team consisting of 51N4E, Tractebel, Rebel, Simply Community and Architecture Workroom Brussels. One of the major problems in Zeebrugge is that, due to the expansion of the port, the village has become disjointed, resulting in four residential districts. The extremely dense port traffic creates barriers between the districts and poses a threat to their liveability. Other challenges Zeebrugge faces concern providing clarity amid the existing tangle of processes and projects, boosting the relationship between the port and living in the area, and creating more quality public space.

The objective of the study is to develop a long-term vision that should improve the connection between the four districts and their link to the port. This must involve a realistic future vision for Zeebrugge’s systematic upgrading. The study provides a comprehensive future framework for transforming Zeebrugge step-by-step, as a result of which other bottlenecks will logically be reduced as well.

The main conclusion of this study is that Zeebrugge is more than an industrial and logistics port. It still has the potential to regain its appeal as a place to live, reside, visit, and experience, as well as to work. Realistically this is a long-term ambition and the study serves as a guide for the coming policy period(s) to systematically, but consistently and coherently, implement initiatives in Zeebrugge. It also constitutes the basis for elaborating proposals at the project level during the coming years.

During the competition phase of this project the design team proposed four possible future visions: Zeebrugge as a city, Zeebrugge as a seaside resort, Zeebrugge as a place of work and Zeebrugge as a polder. The options for a new sea lock were studied in detail during the study. These future visions are potential interpretations of Zeebrugge, each of which is based on a quality that is already available today, but that will be further activated or enhanced in the long term. Whatever option that is selected, in each case a positive redevelopment scenario will be sought, a robust future story that offers a framework for the different developments in Zeebrugge.

Type: Concept study

Year: 2018

Client: City of Bruges

Partners: 51N4E, Tractebel, Rebel, Simply Community

 

Objects
TOEKOMST ZEEBRUGGE VANDAAG EN MORGEN
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WORKROOM

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.