- Europe-Brussels, Visioning and the Design Office    click here to open paper content836 kb
by    Steenwegen, Bart | bart.steenwegen@stad.antwerpen.be   click here to send an email to the auther(s) of this paper
Short Outline
This paper will show the generation of visioning about Europe from the viewpoint of the designer.
Abstract
In my paper I will write something about contextual visioning as a framework in Brussels. One part will be based on the dissertation I wrote, the other part will be based on real experiences with urban (or architectural) practices in Brussels. My dissertation was a search for visioning about the European Quarter in Brussels. I made an analysis of different studies, read through a theoretical framework, partly based on ideas of Umberto Eco en Rem Koolhaas. The conclusion of my text proposes a conceptual vision for the development of the European activities in Brussels, inspired by the Collage City of Colin Rowe.
Through my work at the office of SUM in Brussels I worked on several competitions and projects in Brussels: a tender for a study for Tour&Taxis, a study of Josaphat station, a Masterplan for the Kunstberg, a competition for the Rogierplein and a golf court in Sterrebeek. Both Tour&Taxis and Josaphat were once named to be a new European Quarter.
In the meantime there have been some theoretical initiatives like the book Change and an exposition of Berlage in BOZAR.
I think it is interesting to know how a vision is generated in a design practice and what the restrictions are like time, budget, community administrations, uncertainties, bad project definitions, internal organization. I think is important that there is a cross fertilization between the theoretical field, the administration and the project designer. In the ideal case they work together to develop a common vision.
I will illustrate this by some examples of reality in a design practice.
Keywords
vision; urban city projects
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