transformation

Operation Open Space 2.0

Open space is vitally important. We need open space to safeguard our food supply and biodiversity. The open space also provides our urban society with many other services. It mitigates the effects of climate change, has a cooling function, offers buffer capacity for water shortages or excesses and is needed to generate renewable energy. What’s more, the open space affords us moments of calm, silence and experiential aspects that serve as an essential counterweight to hectic urban living.

Over the course of the past century, the open space has been under pressure. We are increasingly eroding the open space for additional urbanisation, for living and working, for recreation or infrastructure. Open space has become a scarce commodity. In Flanders, seven hectares (or ten football pitches) of open space disappear every day. Despite the ‘concrete stop’ – or ‘construction shift’ – announced in the Spatial Policy Plan for Flanders, we continue to swiftly devour the open space. 
1 – The open space goes on the offensive
Het Open Ruimte Offensief (2013) The six tableaux visualise a new future for the open space. The open space is no longer ousted by urbanisation, but steers it. 
Contested Lands kaart (2017) The open space around Brussels is highly fragmented. The share of agricultural land is seriously under pressure from urbanisation as well as other open space objectives.  
Landscape of Brussels and the outlying Flemish boroughs, 2013. Photo: Tim Van de Velde We could add up and merge the many green residual spaces to produce a strong, cohesive open space system. 
The Ambition of the Territory - Publication
2 – RESEARCH BY DESIGN AS THE DRIVING FORCE FOR CHANGE
Atelier Istanbul The designers drew two maps with, on the one hand, a scenario that maintains the status quo and urban development that takes into account the territory's ecological wealth on the other. 
Tapijtmetropool Tapestry of the ‘mosaic metropolis’. We explored how we could reorganise the widely dispersed urban landscape to produce a single cohesive system in which challenges in the city centre are linked to the challenges in the outskirts. 
One of the results of the research by design for the Belgian coast was a scenario in which the western half of the coast was largely returned to nature. During the spring tide or storm surge large areas such as the IJzervlakte can flood(Metropolitaan Kustlandschap 2100).
Pilot Projects Productive Landschape (2013-2016) One of the most significant conclusions of the project is that for the transformation of agriculture and the open space we not only need designers, but also ‘area mediators’ or ‘food directors’. 
Water as Leverage, World Map The most densely populated places on earth (red) are also the places where water constitutes a major threat (blue). 
3 – FROM DREAMING TO ACTION
Water+Land+Scape The Water+Land+Scape programme aims to identify the urgent needs related to water management in agricultural areas and find suitable solutions together with farmers, water managers, landowners, nature associations and local authorities, which involve a win-win situation for healthy agriculture, a sustainable water system and a robust landscape.
Unsealing map Flanders is one of the frontrunners of hard surfacing in Europe. 
Exhibition view 'The Ambition of the Territory', 2012, Venice. Image: Joost Grootens - project page
Confettimap of the Open Space Platform In the 'Open Ruimte Werken' the scope of the last years of the ORP was mapped out for the first time. More than 100 projects were submitted for one of the programmes, more than 100 others are currently being investigated in other programmes as possible germs for change.
Unsealing actions

Credits

Text: Lene De Vrieze en Bram Vandemoortel

Editing: Joeri De Bruyn

Thanks to: Alice Haddad, Carmen Van Maercke, Catherine Fierens, Chiara Cicchianni, Dirk Sijmons, Elke Vanempten, Griet Celen, Hanne Mangelschots, Hans Leinfelder, Hans Vandermaelen, Henk Ovink, Jaap Van der Salm, Joachim Declerck, Liesl Vanautgaerden, Marjolijn Claeys, Michiel Dehaene, Nik Naudts, Ruth Kennivé, Sis Pillen, Stijn Baets and Tine Segers.

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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.