Project

Brussels Urban Landscape Biennale

Rising Waters – Shaping Our Streets, Gardens And Urban Valleys
The second edition of the Brussels Urban Landscape Biennale (BULB) focuses on the effects of climate change, and more specifically on the increasingly alarming issue of flooding in urbanised areas. The Biennale consists of an exhibition, a lecture, a symposium, curated walks and Garden Tales. It strives to answer questions such as: How could we drain rainwater in a responsible manner? Could landscape architecture provide a solution to the complex challenges? And what are the limitations of our current approach?

Water makes this 'blue' planet a unique, liveable ecosystem, for man as well as other species. However, it is also one of the greatest and most visible threats: there are water shortages, floods and heavily polluted water. Global warming increases the frequency and intensity of heavy rainfall and periods of drought. This requires our cities and landscapes to transform so they are able to cope with these extreme fluctuations in rainfall and temperature. In essence, the task is simple: we must make room for water throughout the city as a whole.

Man has relied too heavily for too long on technical solutions to safeguard the urban environment against flooding, using a complex system of drainage and underground storm drains. But we will have to free up the space needed for a healthy and resilient water system in places where we currently have gardens, streets, parking areas, squares and parks. There is no other space available. The transition to a water-resistant city thus requires a new generation of street, district and city projects, for which vision, examples and forms of collaboration must be developed and tested.

Atelier BULB invited four reputed Brussels landscape designers to spend an entire summer exploring which new urban water projects are needed and possible: Latitude Platform, JNC International, Taktyk and Bureau Bas Smets reflected on how we could prepare the Brussels valleys, districts and streets to cope with the changing climate. Their visions and proposals form the core of this exhibition. Using international reference projects, artworks, graphic material, and documentation from existing policy and projects curated by Architecture Workroom Brussels, they construct a story and agenda for the future. It is not just a glance back at the past; Rising Waters serves as a glimpse of the future and a call to action.

The exhibition follows a logical scale: from small to large. In addition to the proposals by the four landscape artists works by four artists are on display: the video Flooded McDonald’sby the Danish artist trio Superflex, two pieces by Andrea Caretto and Raffaella Spagna, an audiovisual immersion in the valley of Molenbeek by Christian Barani, and an installation by Gauthier Oushoorn.

Type: Exhibition

Year: 2018

Client: Ministerie van Leefmilieu en Levenskwaliteit (Ministry of the Environment and Quality of Life)

Curator: Architecture Workroom Brussels

Partners: BOZAR, Civa Asbl, FBU-BFS 

With contributions from: BOZAR, Leefmilieu Brussel, Bureau Bas Smets, JNC International, Latitude, Taktyk

More info: http://www.bulb.brussels

Objects
Rising Waters (FR) 36 MB
Rising Waters (NL) 38 MB
Rising Waters (EN) 37 MB
Related Projects
2017: Water As Leverage for Resilient Cities Asia
EN FR NL
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.