Project

Kortrijk Leiedal

Intercommunal Leiedal is working on the regional vision for the Kortrijk region. The city around which the region is situated currently receives enough attention already, but the smaller municipalities around it do not necessarily benefit from projects implemented in the city. As a result it is necessary to set up projects specifically for these places.

 

Architecture Workroom Brussels sought ways of linking spatial ambitions to the objectives within the ambitions and broad lines of the regional vision for Kortrijk.

The ambitions are to make the region climate neutral, space neutral, accessible and local, with no borders, or delimited, and liveable. The objectives applied include a resilient blue-green network, reinforcing centres and the urban network, and activating productive landscapes. The objectives bundle a number of ambitions. Architecture Workroom Brussels strives to incorporate these three objectives in different environments and thus create connections or connecting spatial concepts.

Connection 1: A robust water system
The problems the region faces are flooding, erosion, agriculture that consumes a lot of water, and surfacing. By implementing a robust water system you reinforce the green-blue network, make agriculture more productive and create better quality living environments.

Connection 2: A sustainable blue energy landscape
Over the years the water system has also resulted in urbanisation. How could the urbanisation now be supplied with energy in a sustainable manner? It seems logical to use the water that is available to achieve this. For example, for the heating grid, water can be used to cool, but water is also able to transport heat.Possible new activities involve using public space as a lever for transforming residential districts and using farming as part of circular energy. In this connection the focus is on the link between urbanisation, the water network and energy.

Connection 3: A structural blue-green network
Surfacing and parcelling goes on. As a result green space is enclosed in and between building blocks. This means the green space must urgently be made more interesting and useful. Consequently urbanisation must become more porous. Urbanisation must not impede the landscape's absorption capacity – this is what happens when the soil is no longer able to absorb. For example, green spaces can also serve to cool paved areas. The connection that is key to this link is the one between urbanisation, the water system and the green network (biodiversity).

Connection 4: A connected food-housing landscape
It is important to restore the connection between food production and the city dweller. This could be achieved by diversifying farming in the suburbs (in contrast to monoculture). It can coexist alongside large-scale farming, and the diversity can serve as a springboard between farming and the city, with small-scale initiatives such as farmers' markets that try and build a bridge between what is produced in the suburbs, and the city. This means the environment also becomes more interesting from a recreational perspective, which may serve as a challenge for rezoning vacant farms.

The public brochure 'Contrei. Collaborating on a region in transition' depicts these four connections in a number of local and thus recognisable landscapes. In addition the challenges that crop up throughout the region as a whole were examined. This produces a sustainable development framework for the entire region when the maps are placed one on top of the other.
 

 

Type: exhibition

Commissioning party: Leiedal

Link to public brochure: https://issuu.com/leiedal/docs/20180831_-_contrei_-_publieksbrochu 

Related Projects
2015: Kortrijk 2025. The city we can want.
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.