Project

100 Neighbourhoods Forum 2025

The 100 Neighbourhoods Forum disseminates the knowledge accumulated within the 100 Neighbourhoods Platform – a learning and development environment that supports pioneering cities and municipalities in accelerating the integrated realisation of climate and energy goals in existing neighbourhoods – to a broader community of practice.

The second edition of the 100 Neighbourhoods Forum took place on 30 June 2025 and had as its motto “accelerating towards fossil-free neighbourhood by neighbourhood”. The forum thus represents an important milestone in the Energy Neighbourhoods Operation, a collaboration between local authorities, experts, advisory councils, researchers and policymakers to further address the energy transition of our existing neighbourhoods as a shared task.

There is a loud call to join forces around an integrated, neighbourhood-oriented approach to energy transition. Because where the house-by-house energy transition reaches its limits, the pioneers within the 100 Neighbourhoods Platform provide the building blocks for a neighbourhood-oriented and integrated approach. Building on the work of these pioneers, the working exhibition Operation Energy Neighbourhoods translated these building blocks into action fronts for a joint approach. The exhibition was therefore an invitation to work from a broad coalition on a breakthrough programme to accelerate the transition to fossil-free neighbourhood by neighbourhood.

This joint programme was presented for the first time at the 100 Neighbourhoods Forum and refined throughout the day. To further fuel ideas around this Flemish approach, we learned from keynotes on the Viennese programme “Phasing Out Gas” and Dutch legislation on collective heating. The foreign examples clearly show that a neighbourhood-oriented approach works, provided there is a clear local organisational structure and a legislative supra-local framework!

The shift from a house-by-house energy transition with a focus on the individual to a neighbourhood-oriented approach is a true paradigm shift that naturally raises many questions. What are the different possible solutions: which temperature regimes offer the most opportunities? What about renovation needs and requirements for a collective heat supply? How do we define an affordable model for residents and providers? How do we organise ourselves for this: what agreements are needed between local government and the heat network developer? How do we get large customers on board and how do we coordinate different investments? What can heating and cooling plans achieve and what can't they achieve? How can we embed the coordinating role of local authorities?

These questions were explored further in eight parallel breakthrough sessions. In smaller groups, the pioneers, together with all participants in the 100 Neighbourhoods Forum, provided the building blocks for a Flemish approach. This revealed a high level of readiness in the field, but at the same time the need for a facilitating framework and a programme that coordinates and supports the implementation of the transition to fossil-free neighbourhoods.

Location:

Marie-Elisabeth Belpaire Building
Simon Bolivarlaan 17, 1000 Brussels

Date:

30 June, 9.15-17.00

Partners: 

Agentschap Binnenlands Bestuur, Flux50, VITO and VVSG Netwerk Klimaat and with the cooperation of Minaraad, SAAMO, Vlaams Energie- en Klimaatagentschap team groene warmte, ODE Vlaanderen, KULeuven institute for energy and society, UGent.

Programme and registration

Objects
Sessie 1: Stapsgewijs infaseren van fossielvrij en uitfaseren van gas 9 MB
Sessie 2: Betaalbaar wonen in fossielvrije buurten 43 MB
Sessie 3: Lokale warmteplannen als strategisch kader voor lokaal beleid 5 MB
Sessie 4: gemeentelijke participatie in collectieve renovatie- en buurtwarmteprojecten 10 MB
Sessie 5: Sociale woonprojecten en bewonersinitiatieven als locomotieven van de wijktranformatie 15 MB
Sessie 6: Individuele naast collectieve scenario's voor de buurt 5 MB
Sessie 7: Het Wijk Energie Actieplan voor een stapsgewijze transitie naar fossielvrij 16 MB
Sessie 8: Van plannen en beelden naar gebundelde investeringen 55 MB
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.