limitations. Ideally, investigating lines and knots of these traces of innovation means unveiling their hidden relations and deducing important lessons.

<figure><img src="image_324.png" /><figcaption>[Fig. 2] Partners and habitats of the EU Life projects — Barene, Vimine, Seresto, and Lagoon Refresh.</figcaption></figure>

## Limits

Deconstructing specific and situated case studies and the relations they establish with each other unveil limitations and critical points about ecological restoration projects in a broader sense. The potential discussion around limits, paradoxes and contradictions offers the opportunity to search for recent insights and suggest future landscape designs in the Venice Lagoon. The six aspects previously explored (geographical proximity, ecological complementarity, partners' interchange, administrative continuity, pilot ideas, and socio-ecological justice) inform wider concerns on the topics of space, time, and design within ecological restoration projects in wet environments.<fnref n="6" />

First, the relationship between micro-scale pilot projects and large-scale territorial planning. On the one hand, micro-scale experiments tend not to have a significant impact on wider systems; on the other hand, territorial planning risks dispersion and inefficiency when confronted with punctual interventions. Urbanism and Landscape disciplines must thrive for cross-scalar approaches returning to stress the importance of the intermediate scale, able to establish dialogues and mediate between micro and macro design scales. A first research question is therefore hinged on the extensions of design: what is the role of the intermediate scale?

Second, the relationship between the *longue durée* of environmental processes and the limited time of European projects. A strong contradiction characterizes the EU Life Program's ambition of supporting and restoring biodiversity proliferation while confronting tight expiring dates. Indeed, piloting and testing can be one of the preliminary possibilities of designing in a changing landscape, however, in a propaedeutic way, they must inform upscaling strategies – in space and time. A second research question is thus structured on the matter of time: how to grant continuity?

Third, the relationship between morphological and ecological restoration. Often too narrowly, restoration projects are environmental engineering-driven and oriented and their objectives remain focused on quantitative contributions to research. However, working with morphological and ecological processes should not be pursued per se only but rather incorporated into wider and more elaborated strategies. In turn, these observations inform tangential questions on the systemic absence, in European Union-funded projects, of spatial design professionals (urbanists, landscape architects, architects, designers, etc.) which indeed might require further investigation. Therefore, a third research question discusses design methodologies when it comes to restoration projects: what could be the potential role of systemic and integrated landscape design?

The analysis aims at unveiling the inherent and critical limitations of consolidated mainstream practices. At the same time, recognizing such limitations can support laying the foundation for innovatively re-thinking design projects.

<footnote n="6">⁶ Still under elaboration, the limitations are proposed in the form of open questions.</footnote>
## Conclusions

"Hopeful environmental stories" identifies ecological restoration projects in the Venice Lagoon that, despite their critical limitations, are fostering hope by co-design through the use, maintenance, and care of wet landscapes. In the Venice Lagoon, an inter-territorial landscape per se characterized by a high degree of complexity, contradiction, and fragility, uncountable layers of administrative management and jurisdiction contribute to such complexity. A critical reading of liminal practices from the Urbanism and Ecological perspectives is required to assess the impact of site-specific and small-scale Design with Nature projects. Although institutionalized, the EU Life projects stand transversally to the business-as-usual way of operating and designing in the lagoon landscape, sharing a resistant approach to territorial resilience. In this historically contested territory, shaped and regulated by humans, such pilot projects require careful reading and understanding, giving their unprecedented contribution in shifting the perspective on how the Venice Lagoon is read, conceived, and designed.

## Bibliography

* ARPA. (1999). *Grandi Opere*. ARPA. www.arpa.piemonte.it/approfondimenti/grandi-opere

* Barausse, A. (2023, February 7). *Conversation on Life VIMINE, community and ecological restoration* [Personal communication].

* Barausse, A., Grechi, L., Martinello, T., Smania, D., Zangaglia, A., & Palmeri, L. (2015). An integrated approach to prevent the erosion of saltmarshes in the lagoon of Venice. *EQA - Environmental Quality, 18*, 43-54.

* Convention on Wetlands of International Importance. (1971).

* Haraway, D. (2016). *Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene*. Duke University Press.

* Higgs, E. (2003). *Nature by Design. People, Natural Process, and Ecological Restoration*. MIT Press.

* Ingold, T. (2015). *The Life of Lines*. Routledge.

* Martin, L. J. (2022). *Wild by Design. The Rise of Ecological Restoration*. Harvard University Press.

* Mathur, A., & Da Cunha, D. (2014). *Design in the Terrain of Water*. Applied Research & Design.

* McHarg, I. (1969). *Design with Nature*. John Wiley & Sons Inc.

* Milligan, B. (2015). *Landscape Migration*. *Places Journal*. https://doi.org/10.22269/150629

* Molinaroli, E., Guerzoni, S., Sarretta, A., Masiol, M., & Pistolato, M. (2009). Thirty-year changes (1970 to 2000) in bathymetry and sediment texture recorded in the Lagoon of Venice sub-basins, Italy. *Marine Geology*, 258(1), 115-125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2008.12.001

* Proulx, A. (2022). Swamps Can Protect Against Climate Change, If We Only Let Them. *The New Yorker, Annals of Nature* (July 4, 2022).

* Steiner, F., Weller, R., M'Closkey, K., & Fleming, B. (Eds.). (2019). *Design With Nature Now*. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

* Tagliapietra, D., Baldan, D., Barausse, A., Buosi, A., Curiel, D., Guarneri, I., Pessa, G., Rismondo, A., Sfriso, A., Smania, D., & Volpi Ghirardini, A. (2018). Protecting and restoring the salt marshes and seagrasses in the lagoon of Venice. *Management and Restoration of Mediterranean Coastal Lagoon in Europe, 10*, 39-65.

* van Eekelen, E., & Bouw, M. (Eds.). (2020). *Building with Nature. Creating, implementing, and upscaling Nature-based Solutions*. nai010 publishers.
III.c
Socio-ecological movements and
configurations

*Liquid Narratives: Exploring Socio-ecological Practices in Southern São Paulo* (p.462)
Lerchs Lucas, UCLouvain (BE)

*The open spaces of housing estates, as laboratories of the living* (p.475)
Baës-Cantillon Nathanaëlle, UCLouvain (BE)

*Co-creation of natural third-places in European cities: Community gardens in Krakow and Brussels*
(p.487)
Téoule, Fanny, Jagiellonian University, Umons (BE)

*Contesting urban space: socio-ecological questions and the revisiting of the Brussels' counterproject*
(p.499)
Inghelbrecht Eline & Pattyn Dries, KULeuven (BE)
# Liquid Narratives: Exploring Socio-ecological Practices in Southern São Paulo

Lucas Lerchs

SST-LAB-Super-Positions -Université Catholique de Louvain; OSA Research group – KULeuven; Laboratorio Justiça Territorial, Universidade Federal do ABC.

Prof. Chiara Cavalieri, dr. Jeroen Stevens

Expected thesis defence: December 2025

Lucas.lerchs@uclouvain.be

In times of growing social inequality and ecological emergency, the absence of access to housing constrains poor populations to settle in fragile ecological reserves that consequently are exposed to degradation by urban expansion. Brazilian scholars focusing on land-occupation processes investigated «socio-territorial movements» (Fernandes, 2005) to describe how marginalized groups have been resisting ‘through’ territory, using the physical occupation of land as their main revendication tool (Haesbaert, 2012; Halvorsen, Fernandes and Torres, 2019). Yet to understand the everyday struggles emerging from these territories, studies moving beyond the notion of ‘territory’ to the notion of ‘place’ (Oslender, 2016), revealed the importance of understanding place-specific social and ecological practices to understand the evolving difficult relationship between marginalized populations and ecologies (Escobar, 2008).

Through empirically grounded research in the southern periphery of Sao Paulo, this article is an attempt to address these critiques using ethnographic narratives following the story of Marlene’s family; the story of the Comunidade KM47 where she lives; and the story of Marsilac region where the Comunidade KM47 is located. The study of these three multi-layered stories aims to identify these place-based practices and their evolving relationship with the ecologies. How can certain ecologies and geographies change local practices of inhabiting and city-making? How can the study of these practices shed light on the broader socio-ecological crisis? This article aims to explore this by identifying three major phases in the transformation of the community-ecologies relationship. The phases of ‘dependence’, ‘decline’ and ‘socio-ecological marginalisation’ highlight the dynamic nature of local practices, and studying their evolution seek to be a valuable contribution to understanding the on-going socio-ecological marginalisation.

## Introduction

This paper studies the place-based practice of marginalised in their process of surviving and inhabiting ecological reserves in Sao Paulo's southern periphery. The study of these practices aims to inform on the transforming relationship between marginalised community and the ecologies. Through the method of narrative ethnography, this paper portrays three multi-layered stories illustrative of the urgent socio-ecological crisis occuring in Sao Paulo. The use of ethnographic narratives – collected during my fieldwork<fnref n="1" /> – serves as a tool and entry point for identifying, studying, and discussing practices trajectories and aiming to contribute into current academic discussions.

The stories of Marlene and her family; the story of the Comunidade KM47, her self-build neighborhood; and finally, the story of the broader region of Marsilac at the extreme south of Sao Paulo. The entangled perspectives aim to highlight the ground consequences and realities of the wider narratives on the city's transformation. Through spatially sensitive analyses and collection of empirical data, these interwoven narratives depict historical events, memories, and experiences in order to understand how certain ecologies and geographies change practices of inhabiting and city-making. Secondly, this research seeks to explore how examining these practices can enhance our understanding of the broader socio-ecological crisis.

## Three aquatic journeys

In the 18th C, these large areas of *Mata Atlantica* (Atlantic forest) occupied the city's southern territory housed Tupiniquim, Tupinambá, and Guarani indigenous tribes and *aldeias* (settlements) (Fabiano, 2019). Although the indigenous inhabitants of the forest were found to have drastically transformed the alleged ‘pristine’ landscape (Denevan, 1992) the indigenous lived in a rather balanced relation with the local ecological system, and maintained it over centuries (Biemann and Tavares, 2014). But the imminent arrival of settlers was about to change the struggles, practices,

<footnote n="1">¹ The empirical data in this article is based on fieldwork carried out from 6 January 2023 to 9 March 2023 in the southern and extreme southern outskirts of São Paulo in 8 communities. During this period I spent two weeks in total immersion the *Comunidade KM47*, held a workshop on 28 January 2023 entitled *Memorias de Comunidade* (Memories of Community), conducted 15 semi-structured interviews in the Comunidade KM47 and produced numerous mappings and cartographies.</footnote>
and territories drastically. This region was subject to a geographical isolation imposed by the topography of the *Serra do Mar* Mountain range in the south and the hills covered by the Mata Atlantica in the north.

In 1792, the Portuguese colonisers began the two-years project of transformation of the old indigenous *trilhas* (footpaths), better known as *Caminho do Mar* (Path of the Sea). The colonizers saw the value of these indigenous paths in facilitating trade and transportation and used their engineering to remodel the landscape through the dense Atlantic Forest. This posed considerable challenges due to the rugged terrain and the need to cross rivers and valleys. Construction required the use of labour, including enslaved Africans, who were brought to Brazil for forced labour during the colonial era (Ribeiro, 2018). This instrumentalization of geographical knowledge by the colons (Porto-Gonçalves, 2010), was common practice in the region, with some parts more heavily altered than others.

This was the case for the route from the municipality of Santo Amaro to the port of Santos, which had to be travelled by donkey and took several days (Miranda, 2018). In the part of the *Sete curvas* (the seven curves), Dona Theresa – one of the oldest inhabitants of the region – remembers how the transformation of the path included the remodeling of the road following seven curves so that the animals could overcome the high topography with their loads of resources (interview Theresa, 2023)<fnref n="2" />. To this day, this area preserves its name and its reputation as a dangerous escarpment.

The next major intervention in the southern region occurred in 1924, in a climate of political and economic crisis, when the city of São Paulo initiated a railway project linking the town of Mainrique in the southern Port to Santos. To revive the economy, the State was trying to compete with the Canadian company São Paulo Railway Light & Power, which had a monopoly on the production of electricity and on the railway trade to the coastal region (de Marchi, 1991). This monumental project caused another major landscape transformation, due to its passage through the Serra do Mar Mountain range. The construction work included deforestation, topography and excavation remodeling through 30 tunnels, 18 viaducts and a hundred retaining walls (Associação Mairiniquense de Preservação Ferroviária, 2023). During the same years, the Light & Power Company was too busy launching the project to build the city's second large water reserve to produce electricity, the Billings reserve, covering approximately 100 km<fnref n="2" /> with a capacity of 1,2 billion m³ of water (Alves *et al.*, 2010).

<figure><img src="image_325.png" /><figcaption>[fig.1] Preparation of the Serra do Mar terrain for the railway track, undated.
Source: Lavander Junior, Moisés; Mendes, Paulo Augusto from Vitrivius journal, 2017.</figcaption></figure>

<footnote n="2">² All the cited inhabitants interviews are based on semi-structured recorded interview was conducted in my fieldwork from 6th of January to the 20th of March 2023 while I was able to conduct a full-immersion study in the Comunidade KM47.</footnote>
The railway line, completed in 1937, changed the dynamics of the Marsilac region profoundly. To supply the worksite, the main trilhas around the gigantic worksite were transformed into roads (Governo de Sao Paulo, 2003). Among this the famous Sete curvas was made into a road (interview Theresa, 2023). Simultaneously, the progressive deforestation of forest areas into agricultural zone was driven by the progressive presence of 110 000 Japanese farmers migration with most of them located in Sao Paulo agricultural lands (Hauser, 1942). In Marsilac's region, they modified the territories introducing new species of plants such as cottons, bamboos, or the introduction of rice into the local cuisine (Miranda, 2018). From 1908, these families were sent after an agreement was reached between Japan and Brazil, to ease demographic tensions in Japan, which was facing a growing population, and to assist Brazil in the coffee plantations with qualified farmers (Hauser, 1942).

During that decade, the industrialization of the city influenced the development of São Paulo's Southern region from agricultural and ecological area into large-scale reserve of raw materials. The natural richness of the area began to interest sawmills, charcoal and construction companies, set up near the construction site of the railways and linking roads to produce timber and coal used to power locomotives (Governo de Sao Paulo, 2003). Among them a small brick factory was set up on a hilltop at the 47th kilometer of de Estrada Engenheiro Marsilac, named after the engineer who built the train line.

Dona Vicentinha remembers the time when hers and four families were brought by a factory owner to live on the land and work in the two newly built ovens. These workers settled and built the first barracós<fnref n="3" /> (wooden precarious shacks), the Comunidade KM47 was born. (inverview Dona Vicentinha, 2023). The owner made them dug two caipiras wells (countryside hand-made water wells, < 10m deep) and began to clear the surrounding area to transform the wood into charcoal, which he used to cook the bricks (inverview Dona Vicentinha, 2023). The oxen and donkeys were used to transport the freshly cut wood to the ovens, and the cooked coal to the selling point generated small tracks into the dense forest. At the time, they most probably had no idea that these small passages randomly traced would structure the future community.

Only in the 1950s, the first trace of ecological awareness appeared in the region of Marsilac with the creation of the Curucutu Floral Reserve. This first 'reserve' was thought as an experimental production of pines, used for the construction because of their straight trunks (Miranda, 2018). Yet, in the early 1960s due to a significant population growth and the lack of fresh water at the city-scale, the decision-makers managing the city of Sao Paulo changed their vision on Marsilac resources.

It is in this context, around 1970, that Marlene and her family arrived in southern Sao Paulo from Ceara, a largely rural region in north-eastern drylands of Brazil. They were part of a vast migration wave of 2 million people fleeing excessive drought and poverty and seeking a better economic future (Brito, 1973; Baeninger, 2005). At the time, the country was moving from an agricultural and rural society to urban and industrialized centralities (de Lima Amaral, 2013). Following the 'great trek' to the city, Marlene's family - like most of these families - didn't reach the city but had instead to occupy informally peripheral natural lands. Facing a growing inflation, the high cost of land and housings in urban center was already the object of speculation. At the time only families that had a salary four times the value of the minimum wage could rent a house in the city (de Mendonça, 1980) while the social housing production of the time could only addressed 20% of the national demand (de Mendonça, 1980). Consequently, these land-occupations became the modus operandi of city-making in Brazil were 2 millions individuals out of 8 million inhabitants (Baeninger, 2005) poor population occupied and settled - often even 'buying' land from false owners - on land they do not legally own (Rolnik, 2019).

The phenomenon didn't decreased during the 1980's, known as the 'lost decade', following a general recession in the Brazilian combining an economic crisis, inflation and mounting debts increasing inequalities through the country (Furtado, 1963). This productive crisis did not spare Comunidade KM47, where in the early 1980's the brick factory closed down. With its departure, Zé

<footnote n="3">³ Literally translated as "barracks", these temporary constructions were common among soldiers, seasonal workers and shelters for newly-arrived migrants. At the time, the urbanisation of rural land was tolerated by the state, which did not prohibit it but did not produce official documents of ownership either. *Área de protecção ambiental Capivari-Monos, uma Historia*, 2018. Directed by Miranda, S.: Departamento de Unidades de Conservação da Secretaria do Meio Ambiente da Prefeitura de São Paulo.</footnote>
– the young boy from one of the five original families – settled with his family in one of the old ovens (interview Zé, 2023). The wells were used to supply the families with drinking water and the animal tracks were turned into dirt streets (interview Zé, 2023). Unemployed inhabitants organized the sale of land plots to generate a revenue. The land was divided, new streets were laid out and the settlement's population began to incrementally grow (interview Zé, 2023). This initiated the urbanization of KM47 and with it the increase of sceptic pits dug into the red-porous clay soil. The presence of these pits percolated and progressively reached the community's water table, contaminating the shallowest aquifers. The discharge of grey water into the central spring also spread water pollution to the nascent river in the community. The residents, realizing the urgency, organized mutiroses<fnref n="4" /> (collective actions) where men built a concrete protection around the spring to prevent further contamination of the grey water and women cleaned the spring by removing waste and other residues. These actions were unfortunately late in coming with the water table and spring already contaminated.

In 1990, while Marlene left the *Favela do Edith*, when the state offered her family 1500RS, today equivalent to 300 euros. Back then, this was proportionally worth more in comparison with the life cost, but still far from the cost of a new home. Marlene and her family arrived in the Extreme South Region, which was still a very isolated region with a landscape dominated by undulating topography densely covered by Atlantic Forest. Marlene's remembers her arrival at Comunidade KM47 as a tough moment as she had left behind a son, who was wrestling with a drug addiction, and substituted family life for a rough living on the street. Marlene's sister-in-law, who was already living in this new land-occupation in the region, lent her 500RS to buy a piece of land.

The parcel they had freshly acquired was about 25m long by 10m wide and located on the plateau of one of the numerous hills of the area. It was a favorable location for its relatively flat topography, yet on the edge of the slope, they still had to put a lot of work into cutting the dense Mata Atlantica<fnref n="5" />. In comparison to other families who had to excavate large amounts of red clay or backfill and terraced the slope, Marlene and her family felt privileged. Once the land was cleared, the freshly cut wood was combusted to cook. Good, straight pieces of wood were used as light columns to build their first barraco, a wooden shack made of light wood panels, often recycled, or relatively cheaply bought. The local lifestyle at this arrival times reminded Marlene of her life in the North-East of Brazil, as it felt rural much more than urban. A certain isolation was imposed by the difficulty of access to the community. The only connection to São Paulo center for the 20 families living there was the *Estrada Engenheiro Marsilac*, a poorly paved road that was flooded and turned impassable during regular heavy rains.

At the time, Marlene's family could only afford to live all together in one 'room', without access to water and electricity. The room was made of wooden trunks forming a three-dimensional rectangle and was surrounded by plastic sheeting to provide partial protection from the rain. Exposure to the climate was challenging, from broiling sunshine to pouring tropical rains. At that time everyone in the Comunidade KM47 lived in barracos, as none could afford to pay for land and materials simultaneously. Besides, in land-occupations, tenure insecurity makes material investment tricky since it can be lost overnight. The barracos were scattered and connected to small paths of dirt, which would later take the name of these first inhabitants, and which they had collectively cleared by hand.

After several months after Marlene's arrival, the departure of her sister-in-law was not a strong enough signal for her to sell the land and go back on the road in search of a new community. Marlene's family had invested all they had in the purchase of this land and now only was beginning the long process of building a habitat and participating in the construction of a community. The main obstacle they encountered was that the only source of drinking water was deeply

<footnote n="4">⁴ Mutiraoes comes from the indigenous Tupi-Guarani word "moty" meaning mutual and "ayruri" meaning assistance. It is a community practice of helping one another. By working together, the community is able to accomplish major tasks, from cleaning to building to harvesting. Castro, E. B. V. d. and Morton, G. D. (2011) 'The inconstancy of the Indian soul: The encounter of catholics and cannibals in 16th-century Brazil', (*No Title*). Stevens, J. (2018) 'Occupation & city: the proto-urbanism of urban movements in central São Paulo'.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ Through the years the Atlantic Forest in the state of São Paulo has lost approximately 76% of its original forest cover. SOS Mata Atlantica, O. (2023) *A Mata Atlantica é a floresta mais devasta do Brasil*. Available at: https://www.sosma.org.br/causas/mata-atlantica/ (Accessed: 31st May 2023 2023).</footnote>

<footnote>Since the Colonization of the region by the Portuguese to the land-occupation, dense forests of the region were perceived as obstacles to economic development, leading to widespread deforestation</footnote>
contaminated. For decades the water source had provided the 20 families with a water supply, however, over the years, the families' wastewater discharges was diverted into the source, as it was the lowest point and the only system that naturally functioned as a constantly moving sewer. While the grey water travelled, as an open air-sewage, through the dirt alleys to the source; black water was directed to sceptic pits, dug by hand by each family, and over time bacteria had percolated through the permeable soils until they had reached the underground water tables. The inhabitants were forced to explore new ways of getting water and had to be extremely economical with how and when to use it. Rainwater was already considered a precious resource and was systematically collected in 100L plastic barrels placed in front of the Barraco and under the roof tin. This water was mainly used to clean the house. The lack of access to drinking water had pushed the creation of a solidarity networks facing a common battle while reinforcing the creation of a community. The water spring, although contaminated, was still used for cleaning clothes, an activity that was carried out by scrubbing on nearby rocks. This was done on sunny days to take advantage of the sun to dry the clothes. As in times long gone by in the 'modern' urban metropolis, the gathering around water brought the women of the community together and turned the spring into a social epicenter where bonds could be gradually forged. When it was possible, some of them would drive to KM49 where there was another, non-contaminated spring and fill the plastic baskets. Later, the spring of KM49 was closed off due to locals complaining about its use of spiritual stage of *macumba* rituals, a black cult of African origin that continues to play a central role in Black Brazilian communities. In any case, most of the time, Marlene's family had to buy water to drink or to cook. In such precarious situation, where not only water but also money was always scarce, everyday life highly depended on loyal solidarity networks.

<figure><img src="image_326.png" /><figcaption>[fig.2] Polluted water source at the center of Comunidade KM47.
Source: elaborated by the author, 2022.</figcaption></figure>

In the community, the growing population began to deplete the water supply in dry season, forcing the inhabitants to build up alternative plans for water harvesting. The wealthier family, living in front of the urbanizing community and owning much land in the area, built an artisanal well
(approx. 100m deep). Those who could afford it dug a semi-artisanal well (approx. 50m deep) on their land. Most people – including Marlene's family – installed pumps (approx. 10m deep) at the water veins in the depths of the forest. The less fortunate dug caipira wells (less than 10m). The poorest continued to use the surface water from the spring even though they knew it was contaminated. With that, the depth of water harvesting capacities materialized a deeply divided social stratification in which richness and poverty were measured in the purity and taint of water sources.

Up to today, the state has still not officially recognized the existence of the KM47 community. The settlement structure remains invisible on official maps. Nonetheless, governmental agencies have tried to help the inhabitants of the site with the growing water scarcity of the community. The installation of a 15,000L tank was the solution found for a constant access to the blue gold. This intervention was initially very well received by the community. Yet quickly the constant passage of inhabitants inspired the local drug cartel<fnref n="6" /> to settle their sales point at the foot of the water tank. Although access to the tank was always open to the public, the presence of dealers discouraged most of the inhabitants from using it. This unexpected turn of events was further aggravated by a storm that blew away branches and eventually broke the lid of the giant tank. In this tropical region, such a large amount of uncovered water provides ideal conditions for the spread of dengue fever and transform omnipresent local mosquitoes into dangerous carriers. Another attempt was carried around 2015, when an Arab Emirates donator inaugurated a powerful pump at the foot of the contaminated water source with a filter and taps. The intervention was set up in agreement with the local sub-prefecture, which was to be responsible for the maintenance. The machine had a technical problem within a month, and the sub-prefecture never came to carry out maintenance. The pump is today a ruin, as a symbolic monument in decay, reminding the community of the disappointment of external help. Familiar with these failed attempts, Marlene learned to rely on herself and her family, the disillusionment of an external solution and the impossibility of continuing to buy their drinking water with a growing family pushed them to explore further alternatives for drinking water. Her sons ventured deeper into the Atlantic Forest in search of water, knowing that this lush forest also drew its resources from the ground. The discovery of 'water veins' saved the family and allowed them to survive for years to come. These veins are streams that appear when the soil is full of water and disappear in the dry season. Marlene's sons dug the ground to place 4 concrete tubes and install a pump at the bottom. After a few hot summers they realized that they had to dig deeper to avoid suffering as much from the dryness. They dug three more tubes. The word spread and many families dug and installed their pumps in these vertical tunnels in the valley bottom. To connect the veins to their homes, Marlene's family installed 250m of flexible tubing to carry the water, as well as 250m of electric cable to supply the pump. Until today, every three months Marlene has to buy a new pump because of their intensive use and of the distance. This cost is a burden for the family, but a condition for their survival. When the pump breaks, they replace it within a day or two at the most, which corresponds to the water reserves they manage to stock.

<footnote n="6">⁶ In the 1990s, the rising of the violence and crime was going hand in hand with social segregation and had a strong spatial repercussion on the social stigmatization of the peripheral settlements but also in their everyday realities of living with crime. Freeman, J. P. (2003) 'City of walls: crime, segregation, and citizenship in São Paulo. Teresa PR Caldeira', *Urban Geography*, 24(2), pp. 183-184.</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_327.png" /><figcaption>[fig.3] Water veins and Comunidade KM47's families.</figcaption></figure>

Source: elaborated by the author, March 2023

As the family went from 5 to 10 individuals over the years, their need for water infrastructure grew. Since she settled there, Marlene's husband dug three sceptic pits within the boundaries of their property. Two houses were also built on this land, forming a cluster of houses. All three were built in concrete blocks with the long-run savings. For Marlene, they are not yet houses, but 'barracos' because they do not have a legal connection to electricity and water. The family also developed trenches with tubes to create an alternative sewage system for grey water, which earlier ran in the streets. Today, grey water passes under the street and is then redirected to the water source, which is still under contamination. Today the family, like most families, still buys water for drinking, uses rainwater to clean the barracos, and uses the pump for everything else. One lesson the family learned is how to adapt their water consumption to the local climate. Times of continuous rain are good for recharging the water table but are not suitable for washing clothes because they do not dry. Times of prolonged drought are hard times when the family saves water drastically. The strategy is to fill the tanks of one of the family members every day for his/her smaller family nucleus. Thus, Marlene receives the first 50 liters, her son and grandchildren the next 100L, her other son and daughter the next 100L and the last daughter receives the last 100L before starting the 4-day cycle again.

At the end of the millennium, regional demand for resources also changed. The transition from steam to diesel-electric trains reduced the demand for coal in the railway networks, and the total deactivation of the Santos-Sao Paulo freight train at the end of the 1990s was the final blow to the wood extraction at the city-scale for this region. The declaration of many areas of the region as highly protected ecological areas, such as the *APA Capivari-Monos* (Area of Ecological Protection) in 2001, named after two rivers, territorialized this new focus on the use of ecological resources. In light of these decisions, a large part of the Japanese population moved to other rural (Governo de Sao Paulo, 2003), many factories closed their doors for new extractive territories, both leaving behind many local people without jobs. The creation of the second *APA Borrore-Colonia* in 2006 reinforced the policy of protection of natural water systems.
<figure><img src="image_328.png" /><figcaption>[fig.4] Aerial view of the surroundings of Comunidade KM47 (in red)
Source: Google earth, and data from Geosampa, elaborated by author, 2023.</figcaption></figure>

Today, while access to water is a human right and a federal law<fnref n="7" />, the city's water company (SABESP) claims that it cannot connect the Comunidade KM47 to the drinking water network because of existence of the 7 curves (Interview Seu Heleno). This steep altered topography, created at the time for animal transport, would be too costly to perforate for water pipes regarding the little number of inhabitants present in the community and the neighboring communities. Today, Marlene says, when water runs out, she doesn't ask anyone for help. She explains that, at this stage, it is necessary to be able to survive on your own, not to owe anything to anybody. In the community, through the years, access to water has gradually become a measure of social status. Her small children, at the age of adolescence, sometimes take three showers a day whereas Marlene will deprive herself of it by fear of shortage. She explains how her youngsters change their clothes several times a day during the hot seasons to appear fresh. Marlene, on her side, has to wait for the water veins to be full again to be able to wash all those clothes.

Up to the present, unequal access to water infrastructures generate a social hierarchy constituted by water access. Ironically, at the bottom of social standing and wealth, people dependent on the highest situated water sources, often developing skin and intestinal diseases. People owning a caipira wells (10m deep) saw their sources quickly drained by the presence of more powerful semi-artisanal wells (50m deep) and negotiated with the sub prefecture to fund a truck service to fill their tanks every week. Families dependent on pumps, in turn, are forced to invest in new structures at a lower cost but at a regular frequency, with a higher cost for families living further away from the veins. Pumps as well as their wiring furthermore risk theft as much as breakage. At the top of the

<footnote n="7">⁷ "Before 1968, municipalities were responsible for the provision of water and sanitation. Service providers were municipal water and drainage companies, each with different financial and administrative structures. (...) In 1968, the federal government launched the National Water Supply and Sanitation System, which spawned the National Water Supply and Sanitation Plan (PLANASA). PLANASA was the first federal government initiative in water and sanitation in Brazil and part of the then-military government's national urban development policy. The plan to support the national drive to universalize water and sanitation services was implemented in the 1970s and 1980s (CESBs) in every Brazilian state. According to one World Bank report, coverage of water provision among urban residents around the country expanded from 45 per cent to 95 per cent between 1970 and 1990" Oyeyinka, O. (2010) *São Paulo: a tale of two cities*. UN-HABITAT.</footnote>
water-based social pyramid, families with semi artisanal 50m deep wells no longer have to suffer from the lack of water during the year, but still have to be careful during the long periods of droughts.

<figure><img src="image_329.png" /><figcaption>[fig.5] Marlene's family houses cluster and rain water tanks.</figcaption></figure>

Source: elaborated by the author, March 2023

## Theoretical reflexion

Brazilian scholars focusing on land-occupation processes investigated «socio-territorial movements» (Fernandes, 2005) to describe how marginalized groups have been resisting ‘through’ territory, using the physical occupation of land as their main revendication tool (Haesbaert, 2012; Halvorsen, Fernandes and Torres, 2019). Yet to understand the everyday struggles emerging from these territories, studies moving beyond the notion of 'territory' to the notion of 'place' (Oslender, 2016), revealed the importance of understanding place-specific social and ecological practices to understand the evolving difficult relationship between marginalized populations and ecologies (Escobar, 2008).

This reflection seeks to contribute to this academic discussion by exploring different stages of the changing relationship with ecologies. These stages do not pretend to be clearly delimited and static – they may overlap and coexist over a period of time or exist to different degrees throughout the entire process of inhabiting ecologies – but their description helps to understand different dynamics in this process of transforming nature through inhabiting.

## Dependency

The first relationship established between the ecologies and the various occupants of these territories in the place-making process is one of ‘dependency’.

As the stories narrate when the families arrive on these natural land-occupations, the survival of the families highly depends on the resources they find and their level of knowledge about how to use them. For the first few decades, the existence of the KM47 community depended entirely on how, as a group, they managed to develop a responsible extraction of these ecologies. This has led to the creation of solidarity networks, community practices such as mutirões, and the emergence of social centers such as the water source. On the other hand, the "development" of the Marsilac region is also totally based on the exploitation of ecological resources. From the transformation of the trilhas into trade routes, to the agriculturalization of the Mata Atlantica with the introduction of new
populations, to the development of mega-infrastructures such as city-scale water reservoirs, and gigantic dams to produce electricity, and finally the label of these areas as ‘ecological reserves’ to produce and extract drinking water.

This first stage of dependence presupposes a moment when, despite the inequalities<fnref n="8" /> present, resources seem to be present in relative sufficiency<fnref n="9" /> for the precarious populations and the State, or at least do not generate direct conflict over resources between these different actors. This stage of dependence is synonymous with the creation of place-making, and through it, a moment where communities acknowledge the importance of ecologies. This represents a major distinction between shared responsibility and care of the ecologies from the community perspective, while the large-scale actors are just extracting without considering the consequences. This is in line with Martinez-Alier's research on the 'environmentalism of the poor' highlighting how through their battles to keep resources alive, precarious populations understand their connection to and dependence on these resources (Martinez-Alier, 2002). This stage of dependence is therefore a time of ‘adaptive strategies’ (Fagan, 1995) where the communities learn to live with resources and develop conditioned practices for using and living with them.

## Decline

The second phase in the transformation of this relationship is the ‘decline’ phase, due to the gradual depletion of ecological resources.

Over the years, the gradual deterioration of water resources has led to a serious scarcity, which has been very costly for families. While this phase continued to depend on the ecology for its survival, it has led to a new socio-ecological relationship. For the community, this loss of access to such a vital resource generated a shift from shared dependence and mutual responsibility to a dynamic of competitive and hierarchical resource extraction. At the broader scale, the rapid growing of the city negative ecological impacts from the industrialization as city-scale water contamination, air pollution and multiple effects from the large-scale deforestation (de Fatima Andrade et al., 2017) with on the frontline of these pollutions the precarious communities depending on them. This phase illustrates how, when resources become limited or polluted, the unequal access to coping mechanisms deepens uneven exposure to scarcity, leading to inner-community social division.

This phase of decline echoes of the "tragedy of the commons", where the over-exploitation of a resource is created because individual interests are more important than the well-being of the community. As a result, the common resource is over-exploited, affecting everyone (Ostrom, 1990; Hardin, 1968). This individualization occurs when the community is at a more advanced stage of urbanisation. This level of urbanity also brings the possibility of having water at home via a pump, which creates a new distance between the ecologies and the families, as well as between the families themselves. Finally, this decline is aggravated by the lack of perspectives for families living on land-occupation. This insecurity of tenure, omnipresent on the peripheral settlements, leads to an acceleration of ecological degradation by families faced with immediate problems and no perspectives.

## Socio-ecological marginalisation

The last phase of the transforming relationship between community and ecologies is the ‘socio-ecological marginalisation’<fnref n="10" />

In the case of the families in Comunidade KM47, this socio-ecological marginalisation is reflected in multiple exposures to polluted water and all the social issues emerging from it. This transformation is perceptible by the transition from a scarcity of resources to ecologies that are

<footnote n="8">⁸ It has to be said that the 'dependencies' were drastically different, from the KM47 families struggling to survive and create a habitat, to the large-scale companies carrying out massive extractions to control the wealth and its distribution.</footnote>

<footnote n="9">⁹Not to minimize the fact that these first moments of land-occupation are extremely difficult. These people face constant hardship, forced to live on land that is difficult to inhabit, without access to any of their most basic rights or to the infrastructure of a "dignified dwelling". The idea here in speaking of "relative sufficiency" is rather to describe a first stage of place-making which, in comparison with subsequent stages, has abundant natural resources present on site.</footnote>

<footnote n="10">¹⁰ I develop this concept to designates a twofold marginalisation: on the one hand a social marginalisation, where the poor are forced to build by themselves their neighbourhoods creating marginalised communities and occupying lands with no infrastructure; on the other hand, an ecological marginalisation, where the ecological areas are exposed to massive degradation by self-help urban development. This research develops the concept of 'socio-ecological margins' to designate the particular territories constructed from this twofold marginalisation and located at the margins of cities.</footnote>
becoming a source of danger for the inhabitants which deepens the rejection of the ecologies. the Comunidade KM47, the combination of the above phenomena – unequal access to cop mechanisms, increasing pressure on resources and loss of social ties – generates a socio-ecology hierarchy within the community. At the city-scale the socio-ecological margins include more than 1.7 million (Martins, 2005) poor individuals occupying water reserves in the southern periphery São Paulo. The daily rapid pollution of São Paulo's dense water network threatens the provision millions of Brazilians with fresh water and food production. Degradation of water system influences water cycles as well as directly influencing the Mata Atlantica's biome, one of the world heritage hotspots (UNESCO, 1994). In this last phase, the dynamics of double marginalisation become more pronounced through the years. The more the communities destitute the ecologies, the more they are exposed to 'natural' disasters such as landslides, droughts, floods or extreme pollution, as in the case of KM47. The presence of these communities in the ecological reserves conditions them to illegality (Martins, 2005) and crystallizes public opinion: the one hand, the defenders of the right to the city are fighting so that these populations can stay in the peripheries; on the other hand, the defenders of the ecology are fighting to save the water ecosystems (Martins, 2006). This phase of socio-ecological marginalisation for the communities often a moment of power battles with the State. At that stage, the communities – mostly poor nature as an enemy<fnref n="11" />, a barrier to modernization and integration into the city – try to urbanize much their settlement to be recognized as an “urban area” and be regularized. On the other hand, the State doesn't want to recognize all these areas as ‘urban’, knowing that it would condemn remaining ecologies to depletion or even more pollution.

<figure><img src="image_330.png" /><figcaption>[fig.6] Sceptic pit dig by family of Comunidade KM47.</figcaption></figure>

Source: elaborated by the author, March 2023

## Conclusion

This article seeks to contribute to discussion on the importance of understanding place-specific social and ecological practices in relation to the evolving difficult relationship between marginalization andecologies.

<footnote n="11">¹¹ A phrase that one often here on these socio-ecological margins from the inhabitants is "Tudo aqui era mato" (everything here was bush), as historian Janes Jorges puts it: "the *Mato* is the city's negotiating front ". Jorge, J. (2020) 'Morar no extremo sul de São Paulo: sociedade e natureza na região da Guarapiranga em meados do século 20', *Cadernos CEDES*, 40, pp. 266-275.</footnote>
Hauser, H. (1942) 'Japanese Immigration in Brazil', *New Mexico Quarterly*, 12(1), pp. 3.

Jorge, J. (2020) 'Morar no extremo sul de São Paulo: sociedade e natureza na região da Guarapiranga em meados do século 20', *Cadernos CEDES*, 40, pp. 266-275.

Martinez-Alier, J. (2002) *WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT The Environmentalism of the Poor*. Available at: http://www.unrisd.org.

Martins, M. L. R. (2006) 'Globalização, informalidade e regulação em cidades latino-americanas', *Brazilian Journal of Latin American Studies*, 5(8), pp. 31-50.

Martins, M. L. R. R. (2005) 'Moradia social e meio ambiente: tensão e diálogo na metrópole'.

*Área de proteção ambiental Capivari-Monos, uma Historia*, 2018. Directed by Miranda, S.: Departamento de Unidades de Conservação da Secretaria do Meio Ambiente da Prefeitura de São Paulo.

Oslender, U. (2016) 'The geographies of social movements', *The Geographies of Social Movements*: Duke University Press.

Ostrom, E. (1990) *Governing the commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action*. Cambridge university press.

Oyeyinka, O. (2010) *São Paulo: a tale of two cities*. UN-HABITAT.

Porto-Gonçalves, C. (2010) 'De saberes e de territórios: diversidade e emancipação a partir da experiência Latino-Americano', *GEOgraphia*, 8.

Ribeiro, M. A. P. S. (2018) 'Escravidão e liberdade na Serra do Mar: uma análise da atuação dos africanos livres na construção da estrada de Santos a São Paulo (1850-1868)', (Historia & Democracia).

Rolnik, R. (2019) *Urban warfare: Housing under the empire of finance*. Verso Books.

SOS Mata Atlantica, O. (2023) *A Mata Atlantica é a floresta mais devasta do Brasil*. Available at: https://www.sosma.org.br/causas/mata-atlantica/ (Accessed: 31st May 2023 2023).

Stevens, J. (2018) 'Occupation & city: the proto-urbanism of urban movements in central São Paulo'.
# The open spaces of housing estates, as laboratories of the living
An exploration of the Bijlmer district in Amsterdam and the Cité
Modèle in Brussels

Nathanaëlle Baës-Cantillon

Affiliation UCLouvain

Supervisor Olivier Masson

Expected thesis defence: July 2025

nathanaelle.baes@uclouvain.be

If the current ecological crisis is both a crisis of our human societies and a crisis of living beings, it is also, and above all, according to Baptiste Morizot, a crisis of our relationship with living beings. Although this crisis is directly linked to the abysmal disappearance of many species, it is also closely linked to the way in which we humans occupy and inhabit the Earth.

The aim of this article is to identify, through field experiments, the multiple ways in which the question of the living in the urban environment can be addressed.

This article is part of a research project that attempts to reveal the potential of singular places in the Second Belt of Brussels, the open spaces of public housing estates, by looking more closely at how they offer posts for observing the living in the urban environment but also places for experimentation around multiple coalitions.

The hypothesis is that the ongoing project and processes dynamic on these open spaces can draw renewed attention to a specific architectural heritage as well as provide better care and better relations with all species that coexist, while also giving a political voice to all living beings through new coalitions.

To do this, we will look at two specific sites: the Bijlmer district in Amsterdam and the Cité Modèle in Brussels. Observation work conducted in the field and meetings with key actors have enabled us to better understand the dynamics at work on each of these sites.
## Prelude

“Tuesday 4 April 2023. We are at the Cité Modèle in Laeken, a municipality in the north of the Brussels Region. Two days of participatory work are being organised by the urban planning offices Latitude and Dear Pigs to help the Cité Modèle non-profit organisation restructure the Cité’s vegetable garden.

A few people are already at work, shovel in hand. Davide is supervising the workshop. Sophie is a resident of the housing estate. She is an experienced gardener with a whole series of sophisticated tools labelled with her name and she likes to know where her food comes from. She is interested in permaculture, in contrast to the elderly Marcel, who starts by conscientiously ploughing his plot. Four young residents of the housing estate, aged between 13 and 16, are there to help in exchange for a small fee. They are on holiday and it is Ramadan, but they carry kilos of paving stones recovered from Brussels city warehouses. Thimothée and Kafui, both part of the Cité Modèle organisation, are also there to give a hand. The plots have been allocated. The objective of these two days is to delimit the individual plots. Part of the vegetable garden is dedicated to a more collective appropriation.

My shovel sinks into the soil like butter. Twenty centimetres of rich black earth composes the first layer of the garden. Then comes sandier soil with scattered rubble, probably from old excavations. The first layer is teeming with long, fat worms. They are the primary beneficiaries of this garden. They work in the shadows. Sophie tells me that there will inevitably be some collateral damage and asks me to save them as much as possible. They are essential to the good quality of the soil. The fruit trees, old varieties, draw on this soil. There are birds, too. Their song heralds spring and mixes with the sound of the drills coming from the high-rise flats under renovation.

What is at stake between these different actors? What do we all have in common that day? Between a sharing of knowledge where each one learns from the other (despite certain perceptible tensions) and this daily practice of caring for the Earth?”

## Living cities

This everyday narrative is being written and woven by a multitude of human and non-human lives that exist side by side in a context of unprecedented crisis. If the current ecological crisis is both a crisis of our human societies and a crisis of the living, it is also, and above all, according to Baptiste Morizot, a crisis of our ‘relationship with the living’<fnref n="1" />. Although directly linked to the abysmal disappearance of many species, it is also closely linked to the way in which humans use the land and soil, inhabit the Earth, with particularly endemic urbanisation and soil artificialisation<fnref n="2" />. But what do we mean by ‘living’? Beyond its original meaning, where the living pertains to any organism or life form that possesses or shows the characteristics of life or being alive, the term ‘living’ refers to other dimensions that go beyond biology, such as philosophy and political ecology (Buyck, 2022). These dimensions have been studied by a prolific literature emanating from the ecological humanities in recent decades, questioning our ways of being in the world and other ways of making the world. These disciplines are now widely inviting us to rethink our relationship with the living, with a view to overcoming the “nature-culture gap” on which our Western societies have been built. The relationship with the living institutes a relationship of dependence between living beings and their environment, and between living beings themselves. Situated narratives, true stories, “stories of place, stories of the living, indigenous stories, stories of ecosystems” (Lanaspeze, Schaffner, 2004), belonging, attachment and commitment to place are all ways in which ecological humanities are rethinking our attachment to the living. While these reflections are primarily articulated from primary natural terrains, Freya Mathews reminds us that “we tend to imagine connection with nature as something that happens in the bush, but exciting new research is examining belonging and interactions with nature in the city” (Mathews, 2000). The urbanised space might also be the right place for this reconciliation with all the entities that populate the

<footnote n="1">¹ Morizot B. (2020), Ways of Being alive, translated by Andrew Brown, Wiley</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Today, we notice a weakening of natural systems in cities. The expansion of territories affects the very ecology of landscapes, causes the destruction and fragmentation of natural vegetation, and implies an increase in temperatures, the degradation of air and water quality, and the sealing of surfaces. Soil degradation leads to the disruption of ecological balances and the destruction of ecosystems. To counteract the loss of biodiversity and soil artificialisation, recent policies ('no net land take' compensation measures), supported by the European Union, aim to curb land consumption by 2050 and attempt to regulate the impact of new construction on soil artificialisation.</footnote>
world. Indeed, nature also thrives where we least expect it, in brownfields, on roofs and underground. But how do urban planning and landscape practices deal with these issues in the urban environment today? Are they able to initiate these relationships, these reconnections in view of a reconciliation?

For the second year running, ‘living cities’ is the theme of the Europan3 competition presenting it as a “new paradigm, in which new kinds of synergies can be considered between the environmental, biological, social, economic, cultural and political dimensions. This paradigm leads us to think in terms of co-evolution and interactions, and to work with regenerative project dynamics, combining metabolic and inclusive vitalities.”

The last landscape and architecture biennial in Versailles (BAP 2022), entitled ‘The Precedence of the Living’, also shows the topicality of this concept in relation to the fields of urban planning and landscape. The biennial’s co-curator, Gilles Clément, a radical figure in French thinking on the living, reminds us of the importance of including the living in a wider debate, in order to design landscape and cities from a living perspective. But Clément also underlines our ignorance of living things and agrees with the theses of Morizot and Muratet on our blindness and inability to name living things: “we still don’t know much about natural genius, about how to deal with it, how to live with it, how to dialogue, initiate and develop with animal and plant diversity.”4 On the one hand, the last two sessions of Europan invite us to think about the city and the landscape collectively from the viewpoint of the living in all its dimensions; on the other, it is an admission of our ignorance of the living and an invitation to a certain humility and, ultimately, to better understanding.

The aim of this article is therefore to identify, through two case studies, the multiple ways of dealing with the ‘living’ in urban environments, but also the sticking points and the limits faced by certain projects or processes.

To do this, we will take a look at two specific sites: the Bijlmer district in Amsterdam and the Cité Modèle in Brussels, both distinct examples of modernist heritage. We will first look at the case of the Bijlmer food forest, a pioneering project led by a group of activist artists based in Amsterdam. This project, initiated in 2018, applies the principles of multispecies urbanism as defined by Debra Solomon, the founder of Urbaniahoeve, a social lab for urban agriculture that produces food forests in the public space and provides related education and training with locals, in and for their own communities. We will then look at the Cité Modèle, an icon of modern architecture whose open spaces and living soil have been the subject of several landscape experiments initiated by different actors.

Ongoing observation work is being carried out in each of these places and meetings with key players have enabled us to gain a better understanding of the dynamics at work. For the Bijlmer, a reflection is being carried out by means of walks, drawings and writings with architecture, landscape and urban design students from the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture (AHK) to reveal the potential at Bijlmer of coexistence. For the Cité Modèle, besides talking to Gilles Clément, we have been actively engaging with the site through a garden workshop. In both cases, we will therefore try to describe how these ongoing social and spatial experiments propose multiple ways of being in relation with the living (1) by considering the natural potential of these places where humans and non-humans live side by side, (2) by the construction and transmission of a shared narrative, and (3) by the daily care accorded to these everyday spaces.

## Learning from Bijlmer

“She was raised to be the ultimate solution for the polluted, dilapidated, and crowded cities. A modern city expansion in its purest form: large dwellings arranged in high-rise flats, placed in a lush and green environment. A strict segregation of programme would guarantee a quiet and clean neighbourhood with an abundance of leisure possibilities. It would be the safest living environment

<footnote n="3">³https://www.europan-europe.eu/fr/</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Gilles Clément, conversation with the author, Paris, 3 June 2022.</footnote>
in the country, as the motorized traffic – lifted high above the ground – was completely isolated
from pedestrians and cyclists” (Oostendorp, Sieswerda, 2010).<fnref n="5" />

The Bijlmer district has an eventful history. Designed according to the principles of the CIAM, it represents the modern city of emancipation in Amsterdam in the 1960s. To build the Bijlmer, new ground was created. A total of 11.5 million cubic metres of soil from the Vinkenveen and Muiderzand lakes were deposited on the peaty soil of the Bijlmermeerpolder. The original plan, designed by Siegfried Nassuth, was organised around housing blocks in a honeycomb pattern set in a large expanse of ‘green’ and recreational space [fig.1&2].

Over the past fifty years, the Bijlmer has undergone significant spatial and social changes, although the overall structure of the landscape has remained relatively intact. The food forest project is a pioneering one in the sense that it has developed a process where many actors have been involved around food practices and what its authors call ‘multispecies’ urbanism.

<figure><img src="image_331.png" /><figcaption>[fig.1] Bijlmermeer original plan – Source: City of Amsterdam Archive</figcaption></figure>

<caption>[fig.2] The construction of the Bijlmer – Source: City of Amsterdam Archive</caption>

## *The food forest*

The project was initiated by Urbaniahoeve, an organization founded by Debra Solomon and Renate Nollen in 2018 and developed by the Amsterdam Zuidoost Food Forest Community of Practice in collaboration with the City of Amsterdam. The project is based on the spatial structure of the neighbourhood and its surface area. Indeed, the project area covers more than 55 hectares of open space between two structuring green corridors, the Bijlmerweide in the east and the Nelson Mandela Park in the west. This minimum surface is necessary to prevent the loss of less urban, sometimes rare, mostly forest species that are sensitive to the reduction of their territory. The 55 hectares consist of open spaces of different natures: the existing pocket forests, the meadow turfs, the water banks, the pedestrian meadows, the educational food forest and micro-environments linked to the architecture, such as the heart of the honeycomb buildings<fnref n="6" />.

The project is also part of a wider academic reflection by Debra Solomon on multispecies urbanism. Solomon presents this type of urbanism as a philosophy in which a city gives priority to the care of nature and ecology, and where humans are not alone, but are part of a reciprocal multispecies relationship with the urban landscape they live in. The Amsterdam Zuidoost food forest proposes to test this type of multispecies urbanism and to work on this reconnection through the creation of a forest that would short-circuit the system of dependence on the food network linked to mass distribution. The project is based on the observation that the Bijlmer's

<footnote n="5">⁵ The authors rely on fiction, taking an exemplary building and personifying it through the different phases of its life: “For the benefit of the narrative we have condensed these events and tell the story of one exemplary building.” See Wouter Oostendorp and Jouke Sieswerda, 2010, *Interpreting Modernism: How an Amsterdam housing development changes when Suriname gains independence*. in *Journeys: How travelling fruit, ideas and buildings rearrange our environment*, CCA</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ Sites larger than 53 hectares are necessary to prevent the rapid loss of area-sensitive species. Joscha Beninde, Michael Veith and Axel Hochkirch, “Biodiversity in cities needs space: a meta-analysis of factors determining intra-urban biodiversity variation”, *Ecology Letters* (2015) 18: 581–592.</footnote>
precarious populations are the most vulnerable to health problems linked to processed food, which industry moreover aggravates the climate crisis and the loss of biodiversity and fails to provide healthy food. These populations face a form of environmental and food injustice linked to mass distribution. Beyond its local scope, the project thus calls for a radical change in our agricultural and food systems based on a vision and spatial practices rooted locally.

To implement the food forest, work was carried out with all the local associations involved in urban gardening, health and education. The project is also supported by the City of Amsterdam, which has developed a growing interest in soil and soil remediation in recent years.

<figure><img src="image_332.png" /><figcaption>[fig.3] A wild meadow in the K district of the Bijlmer, by the author</figcaption></figure>

<caption>[fig.4] Vegetable garden in the K district of the Bijlmer, by the author</caption>

## Pedagogy of the living

The food forest is therefore intended for both humans and non-humans through the variety of food it offers [fig.3&4]. The humus in the soil is reconstituted to encourage the presence of microorganisms. Edible species have been planted, such as berry bushes (raspberries, blackcurrants, currants), fruit trees (apples, pears) and nut trees. But the forest is also based on a collection of spontaneous edible plants that cover the Bijlmer soil: wild rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia), purslane (portulaca oleracea L.), garlic (alliaria petoliata), not to mention the many nettles (urtica).

During a site visit with the students of the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture (AHK)7, Debra Solomon invites us to pick and taste these different plants (with the exception of nettles). In doing so, she brings to our attention, by calling on our various senses, what has become invisible to us. This educational work is also carried out with the municipal services in charge of the maintenance of the green spaces in order to set up an ambitious plan of differentiated management8. Despite proven positive results (in terms of soil quality, increase in biodiversity, the improvement of the plant layers), its application is facing difficulties in the long term. The lack of commitment of the authorities on a daily basis and the lack of training of the gardeners who maintain the open spaces undermine the work in the long term. Mowing in the wrong place can have catastrophic consequences for the maintenance of certain biotopes as it can destroy natural habitats and therefore destroy all the work done upstream by the "community of praxis" committed to change. Over the past ten years, this community formed around the inhabitants of the Bijlmer has evolved and its members have changed. Debra Solomon is the link between the different members, but she is also responsible for the success of such a project. Every month, she visits the site, pruning shears in hand, to eradicate the giant hogweed, an invasive and phototoxic plant, or to specify future mowing plans. She takes on the role of artist, researcher, mediator and gardener. For Gilles

<footnote n="7">⁷ The students were enrolled in the 02 b course on ecology and reflection, where the Bijlmer food forest has been introduced to the students as a field of research for the completion of a collective section representing different stories of cohabitation.</footnote>

<footnote n="8">⁸ The differentiated management of green spaces consists in *not* managing and maintaining all the green spaces of a community in the same way and with the same intensity. For example, you can have a mowing plan defining areas that are mechanically mowed, others that are manually mowed, and others still that are left untouched.</footnote>
Clément, the gardener guarantees the maintenance and improvement of biodiversity. But to guarantee this attention, an attachment to the place, to the soil, is necessary. Through her involvement over such a long time and with so few means, Debra Solomon is taking a very radical stance at the Bijlmer.

Despite the difficulties it faces, the project seems to be increasingly anchored in its territory, transforming it in a sustainable way. Firstly, by the daily care given to this everyday nature. Secondly, by the importance of the community, which seems to give a voice to the living, by forming and reforming ‘communities of praxis’ and by clarifying knowledge about the living. The Bijlmer project is thus based on an innovative practice, that of a concerted multispecies urbanism and of an artistic practice in wasteland.

## Brussels, the ‘green city’ of the twentieth-century Belt

We now turn to Brussels and to the broader framework of the thesis in which this article is set. Brussels has inherited what is known as the ‘twentieth-century Belt’<fnref n="9" />, a space straddling Flanders and Brussels, neither strictly a suburb nor a periphery. This particular fabric refers to a city-nature ideal through the fine interweaving of its built-up and open spaces, alongside the large nature reserves. It offers, through its fragmented condition, a field for observing urban biodiversity.

In this Belt, my interest is in districts similar to the Bijlmer, where architecture is inseparable from landscape [fig.5]. These outdoor open spaces are linked to the public housing heritage that was once built on strong ideology. Their surface area represents 353 hectares<fnref n="10" /> over the whole region, i.e. 4% of its total surface area, but they have not yet been recognised for their biodiversity potential, as most are classified as ‘areas under vegetation cover’ by the Nature Plan<fnref n="11" /> and as ‘low density areas’ by the Regional Land Use Plan<fnref n="12" />.

If the landscape of the garden cities in the early 20th century carried a fertile landscape discourse, the ‘green space’ of the Athens Charter, on the other hand, “reduces the vegetal presence to a spot, a coloured surface whose destination is so diverse that it becomes indeterminate” (Mathis 2021). It is only since the late 1970s, with the work of Paul Duvigneaud in Brussels and the emergence of the ‘urban ecosystem’, that “the way we look at plants has changed. It has become part of a social and natural whole that must be taken into account” (Mathis 2021). In this open and green city, originally planned for recreation and leisure, we now find spaces that can be shared with all forms of living beings and where radical practices are emerging.

<footnote n="9">⁹ Leloutre, Cavalieri, Dehaene, Atlas de la couronne du XXème siècle. In 2019, LABO RUIMTE (Département Omgeving and Team Vlaams Bouwmeester), in collaboration with the Brussels Region (perspective.brussels and bouwmeester maître architecte), launched an analytical and prospective research project on the qualitative transformation of the built fabric in the 20th century crown in Brussels and the surrounding area. The 20th century ring road is a strip of land straddling the two regions, between 2.5 km inside and 5 km outside the boundaries of the Brussels Region. This atypical stretch of land presents a number of urban and social challenges in terms of mobility, the environment and health, but also in terms of quality and affordability.</footnote>

<footnote n="10">¹⁰ Information given by BRAT - Bloc paysage in the Inventory of Open Spaces, study launched by SLRB-Bruxelles Environnement in 2021, third CA presentation. As an element of comparison, we could take ZSC II, which is made up of 15 partial Natura 2000 zones covering both public and private open green spaces. This *Zone Spéciale de Conservation* lies between Molenbeek-Geleytsbeek to the north and Linkebeek-Verrewinkelbeek to the south. The 10-hectare Kinsendael Krikenput nature reserve is part of this area. It's easy to see why these nature reserves, made up of former quarries and farmland, have been partly renaturalised to benefit biodiversity.</footnote>

<footnote n="11">¹¹ Plan Nature, 2015.</footnote>

<footnote n="12">¹² Plan Régional d'Affectation du Sol (PRAS).</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_333.png" /></figure>

[fig.5] Identification of social housing sites in the Green Belt of Brussels. Here, the different shades of green are set at the same level to create a mass effect and highlight the major urban continuities.

Source: “elaborated by the author” from the Brussels Housing Corporation (SLRB), 2013 / NGI Top10Vector v5.4 (2019) 01/10/2019

## Cité Modèle

The Cité Modèle is part of that network of open spaces intertwined with public housing that composes the green belt of Brussels. But before delving into the site's current status, it is important to understand its genesis. As an icon of post-war urban planning in Brussels, the Cité Modèle is one of the largest social housing sites in the region, with more than 1,000 housing units for 2,000 inhabitants. It has been and still is the subject of several research studies and articles in the field of urban sociology and architectural history, but the open landscape and its topicality have been little studied until now13.

This 17 ha site is located on the formerly agricultural Heysel Plateau, near the Dieleghem Forest and the Laerbeek Forest, both of which are classified as Natura 2000. Although the 55 hectares of critical mass are not reached here as in the Bijlmer, the 17 hectares constitute a potential link in the reinforcement of the green and blue corridors. The Cité Modèle housing estate was intended to be a showcase for the post-war housing revival, a project that the socialist deputy Fernand Brunfaut wanted for the 1958 World's Fair. This modernist complex was designed from 1956 onwards by a group of architects: Renaat Braem, as leader of the group and strong believer “that the city, by its intimidating external monumentality and its inner serenity, would reorganize social relations and thus generate a new, more liberated human.”, Victor Coolens, Jean Van Doosselaere, Raymond Stenier (of the Structures group), Émile Parent (of the L'Équerre group) and René Panis. Inspired

<footnote n="13">¹³ Morgane Bos's article looks at the open spaces of the Cité Modèle from a historical perspective, questioning Clément's project in the context of a modern heritage legacy. Bos, Morgane. Contemporary continuity of an introverted heritage site. The case of the Cité Modèle of Heysel (Brussels, Belgium).17th DOCOMOMO Conférence 2022 : Modern Design: Social Commitment & Quality of Life (Valencia, Spain, du 06/09/2022 au 09/09/2022)</footnote>
by the Athens Charter, the Cité Modèle is composed of vast buildings, oriented East-West, mostly raised on pillars, and benefiting from abundant sunlight.

The surrounding landscape was designed by the architects and follows an orthonormal logic reinforcing the architectural dimension of the site, despite its accentuated topography. The pedestrian paths are in red cast concrete and follow the main lines of the site and buildings. The green spaces make up the remaining part of this plan. If the construction of the roads and the first profiling and grassing of the surroundings were only carried out on part of the site around 1965–66, most of the planting was only done in the early 1970s.

The archival work carried out within the Foyer Laekenois, the housing corporation in charge of the Cité, has made it possible to find the specifications for the surroundings dating from 1974 and the list of original plantations. The choice of species is mainly exotic and is rooted in the aesthetics of the 1970s and in floral art. There are a large number of cotoneaster horizontalis, rosa rugosa and dwarf mountain pine (pinus mugo muglus). Particular attention was paid to the lawns and their maintenance: everything was done to obtain a beautiful ‘carpet of grass’. In the original design, the surroundings are therefore considered as undefined green spaces, designed with two layers: a tree layer and a large expanse of lawn.

The photos taken at the time of the construction [fig. 6] show a stripped, extremely bare area. The violence done to the soil by the excavation and embankment work carried out on the entire site, destroying a large part of the biological richness present in the soil, seems to be representative of the paradox of urbanisation: that of the development of a place in which to live, aiming first and foremost at its artificialisation to the detriment of its natural qualities and its ecosystemic richness. Today, the aim is to reverse this destructive process in favour of an inhabited environment that gives more space to biodiversity, which would allow us to link up with the living beyond the quantitative issue. In the Cité Modèle, “the relationship with life could become the basis of a social contract to be reinvented” (Fleury, Prévot-Julliard, 2019)

<figure><img src="image_334.png" /><figcaption>[fig.6] The construction of the Cité Modèle – Source: City of Brussels Archive</figcaption></figure>

As a counterpoint to the history of the architectural model that represents the ‘model city’, as in the Bijlmer with its moments of grandeur and decadence, we can identify other stories that contribute to shaping the ‘living thickness’ of the Cité. Two stories of neighbouring, almost adjoining places, which echo the process started in the Bijlmer by starting from the existing, introducing new planted layers and relying on communities of inhabitants. Two stories that give us a glimpse of the possibility of a renewed relationship with the living in the Cité Modèle: Gilles Clément's well-known project Jardin de l'Arbre à Ballon, and the Potager Modèle, a recent initiative to revive the Cité's former vegetable garden.

## Jardin de l'Arbre à Ballon

In 2005, three years after publishing his book on the ‘garden in movement’14, Gilles Clément was invited to create a work of art on the site of the Cité Modèle as part of an artistic subsidy financed

<footnote n="14">14 Clément G, 2006, le Jardin en mouvement, Sens & Tonka.</footnote>
by the Brussels Housing Corporation (SLRB), the 101% artistic (subsidy). For Clément, this was an
opportunity to implement the main principles of the ‘garden in movement’ in Brussels, which
consists in “combining formal aesthetics with the balance of an ecosystem. To preserve the existing
diversity, to increase it, to use the energy specific to the species, not to spend unnecessary energy
on the contrary. Do as much as possible with as little as possible”15.

The proposed project suggests going through a new piece of landscape, experiencing nature in the
city in a new way. The main interest of the garden is to open up the site on its southern edge by a
generously planted garden staircase. From the start, Gilles Clément wanted to link the Cité’s
cultural centre, la Maison de la Création, a local anchor in the life of the Cité, to everyday spaces
such as the nearby supermarket. “For me, it was obvious that the importance of this cultural centre,
which brings together the inhabitants whenever possible, had to be highlighted. From a social point
of view, it seemed very useful and successful. Then, to link the plateau with the built architecture
and what was below: a supermarket, things that were accessible but by taking detours. So why not
go straight there? This allowed me to talk about the Arbre à Ballon, to cross the embankment in a
different way, and I made this proposal for a new axis with a 21-metre-wide staircase, but which is
not a staircase that you cross directly, or a classic staircase which you climb in a straight line.”16

With the Jardin de l'Arbre à Ballon, Clément attempts to implement landscape principles in the name of diversity, and thus to change management methods. The staircase-garden is the support of a new biotope, "with large cracks that are planted and that force us to meet the living plant". The introduction of melliferous plants suggests that small insects, bees, butterflies and birds will come and settle there and gather food. Indeed, the species chosen, unlike the original species, refer to a new plant world with a differentiated management. There are many pennisetum, evoking the free landscapes of the coast although some trimmed boxtrees lend a certain rigour to the garden. This project, through the plant palette and management method it proposes, seems to illustrate the shift from a domesticated to a wilder nature within urbanised environments, offering more room for biodiversity and more room for encounters between human non-human living beings. Following a relatively classic implementation process (with a permit application and a tender to choose the contractor), the project failed to benefit from the establishment of a strong community of inhabitants involved in the project's realisation. Only a few workshops were organised with children in the company of Gilles Clément to better understand the dynamics of movement in public space. For several years now, a co-management structure has been set up between Les Jeunes Jardiniers (a private gardening company trained in differentiated management practices, in charge of the meadows and plantations) and the green space maintenance team of the City of Brussels (in charge of the dolomite paths). The renovation of the staircase-garden is, according to the SLRB17, necessary to repair the paths but also to replace perennials that have reached the end of their life cycle. Isn't this renovation going against the concept of a 'garden in movement'? Should the landscape project be fixed to the detriment of the living? In his book Éloge des vagabondes18, Gilles Clément reminds us of his aversion to any forms of conservatism by considering the multiplicity of encounters and the diversity of beings as a wealth added to the territory. In his own way, Clément has tried to establish a “shared territory” where humans and non-humans could perhaps better co-exist. But it is primarily a spatial and botanical vision that is put forward and the aesthetic experience seems to take precedence today over the co-evolutionary dimension, which seems to be the central challenge to the recent dynamics launched in the Potager Modèle.

## Potager Modèle

The Potager Modèle is located about fifty metres from the Jardin de l'Arbre à Ballon. Initiated in 2012 as part of the sustainable neighbourhood citizen initiative, it is now part of the 'climate call for projects' launched by the City of Brussels in 2022. The current initiative is based on the existing vegetable garden, which had fallen into disuse due to a lack of active forces and a lack of visibility. The project was initiated by the non-profit organisation Cité Modèle with some inhabitants who

<footnote n="15">15 Gilles Clément, conversation with the author, Paris, 3 June 2022.</footnote>

<footnote n="16">16 Ibid.</footnote>

<footnote n="17">17 Marc Florin, SLRB landscape architect, conversation with the author, 13th may 2022.</footnote>

<footnote n="18">18 Clément G, 2023, Éloge des vagabondes, Robert Laffon</footnote>
were initially involved in the original vegetable garden. The ambition of the Potager Modèle is to go
beyond a collective vegetable garden project and to respond to multiple challenges linked to
sustainable food, rainwater management, biodiversity in green spaces, reduction of heat islands and
the reuse of solid and organic resources. Several dimensions have been highlighted by the
organisation, including the biological dimension (through “the diversification of vegetal spaces and
the implementation of devices to increase the presence of insects and biodiversity”) and the social
dimension (through “a co-creation and participatory training approach at all stages of the project”).
Despite its relatively small size compared to the Bijlmer's 53 hectares, it is reminiscent in some
respects of the food forest project in that it aims to establish a hyper-local food chain and to
enhance the value of the green and blue landscapes both for better social inclusion and to improve
biodiversity.

The project aims to train the future gardeners of the Cité Modèle to guarantee the long-term maintenance of the garden. Two days on site allowed me to measure the potential of the place not only in terms of its ecological dimension but also in terms of its educational and social dimensions. The project starts from what is already there by paying attention to the existing fruit trees, the orientation of the Sun, and the setbacks from the existing ground floors. It relies on local associations and on a community of residents who do not necessarily know each other but who have a common objective: to share a piece of land, to connect to the ground, in contrast to most of the housing in the estate, which seems to belong to the sky, to the horizon. Although there are tensions and visions sometimes diverge, alliances are also emerging.

Unlike the Jardin de l'Arbre à Ballon, the figure of the landscape designer does not exist here. The collective of urban planners and architects who support the process, formed around the Latitudes and Dallas collectives, do not seem to claim ownership of the project but rather advocate its co-construction with a view to sharing and transmission. These ambitions can be found in Gilles Clément's garden, with a stronger social construction here.

## Discussion

In this article, we described the attempt of Bijlmer food forest and the two gardens of the cité modèle to build a better relationship with the living, without opposing human interest with ‘nature’. Both projects reveal the importance of somewhat marginal processes that bypass conventional project management procedures, on the one hand, and the importance of ongoing, long-term management, on the other. They also reveal the fragility of our (human) link to the living in urban contexts.

But how to ensure the continuity of this type of project? And how to define the role of landscape?
We should certainly mention the timid but ongoing drive in Brussels to go beyond current technical
planning instruments, such as the regional Plan for Sustainable development (PRD) (2013) and the
regional nature Plan (Plan Nature) (2016) and adopt an approach that is both forward-looking and
sustainable. The study *Les espaces (ou)verts du logements* carried out by the SLRB and Brussels
Environment three years ago aimed to reveal the importance of this heritage, its fragmentation and
the difficulty of managing it from a mainly technical angle (land ownership, maintenance). Although
the results could not be disseminated, it did reveal a need for a better knowledge of this heritage
and questioned the ecological role of open spaces linked to housing. A number of pilot sites were
then chosen to test more innovative types of management. This is an important step in a more
general process that should not be limited to the ecological management of the living, but should
focus on the links and relationships that need to be built, by inviting the residents of these housing
to get a better feel for the natural spaces they inhabit, through care and knowledge.

The discipline of landscape is at the heart of these issues, although it manifests itself very differently
depending on the case study presented in this article. The Projet de l'Arbre à Ballon is above all a
project with a strong aesthetic, a structuring design that organises encounters through form. The
Potager Modèle and the Bijlmer food forest, on the other hand, are firstly based on the strong
involvement of local residents. They define a framework within which an aesthetic can emerge.
These projects and practices of the ‘living’ in urban situations reflect Jean-Marc Besse's notion of
‘boundary objects’. “In terms of development, the logic of the landscape is in fact what the
sociology of science and technology has called ‘frontier objects’: objects with uncertain contours
that enable different social worlds to meet. Landscape creates a space where multiple disciplinary
knowledge, heterogeneous rationalities and diverse interests meet and sometimes clash in a process of defining what is the place of intervention and therefore the spatial response that is developed there" (Jean-Marc Besse, 2018). Therefore, the landscape allows us to work on our interdependencies without always opposing a priori the interests of humans and those of 'nature'. Indeed, these case studies are not the stories of territories that need to be defended against building projects in the name of biodiversity, as can be the case with certain brownfield sites in Brussels. The stake here is not the defense of an exceptional biodiversity, but the initiation of an encounter with the living through the project of landscape in its broadest sense.

In both cases, a new narrative is being written, one that overcomes the old modern ideology. There is reason to be hopeful that these places can become "places of exchange, co-learning and biodiversity"<fnref n="19" /> by taking better care of this fragile nature we all belong to. In other words, by enhancing the value of our modern built heritage, where a new contract between human and non-human must be found. The processes followed at the Bijlmer food forest and at the Cité Modèle make it possible to set up a shared landscape laboratory for the benefit of all forms of life, bypassing the more traditional procedures of urban design and drawing on strong, multidisciplinary expertise.

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# Co-creation of natural third places in European cities: Community gardens in Krakow and Brussels

Fanny Téoule

Jagiellonian University, Doctoral School in the Social Sciences; Jagiellonian University, Faculty of Geography and Geology, Institute of Geography and Spatial Management
University of Mons, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning
Dr hab. Jarosław Działek and Kristel Mazy, associate professor
Expected thesis defence: September, 2025
Fanny.teoule@doctoral.uj.edu.pl

This paper investigates the role of community gardens as natural third places in facilitating socio-ecological transitions in Central and Western European cities. With over 70% of the population residing in urban areas, the study recognizes the need for sustainable practices and alternative modes of production. By a mixed method, the research aims to explore the functions and appropriations of community gardens and their impact on urban transitions. The study encompasses three stages: mapping community gardens, conducting qualitative case studies, and mixed-method analysis. Through participatory mapping, typologies of community gardens in Brussels and Krakow will be developed. The subsequent stage involves qualitative analysis, ethnographies, and in-depth interviews with stakeholders to understand their role. An experimental project will be conducted in Krakow, followed by producing recommendations. Shedding light on interactions between professionals, inhabitants, and the environment, the study provides tools for co-creating community gardens and advancing socio-ecological transitions.

# Understanding Functions, Practices, and Socio-Political Dimensions of Community Gardens in Diverse European Contexts

Urbanization has become a global phenomenon, and cities are now the primary laboratories for change, as stated by Haëntjens (2008). In today's world, cities serve as hubs of innovation and environmental concerns, with a heightened sensitivity to urban areas. Consequently, there is a growing need to simultaneously consider climate, urbanism, and nature. The epoch of the Urban Anthropocene has led Western societies, known for having the largest ecological footprints relative to their population, to face the challenge of reducing their environmental impacts through socio-ecological transitions (Bourg, 1996).

Socio-ecological transitions involve the transformation of resource-intensive production systems, particularly those reliant on fossil fuels, towards more sustainable modes of production that utilize renewable resources (Hopkins, 2010; Grandjean, Le Teno, 2015). Originating in the Netherlands in the late 1990s, Transition studies focus on achieving a balance between environmental protection, social cohesion, and economic viability (Schlossberg, Anderson, 2012; Coenen et al., 2012). These transitions affect not only the organization of production systems but also lifestyle changes (Maresca, Dujin, 2014). By exploring socio-ecological transitions, we delve into the relationship between societies and their environment or territory, with a comprehensive understanding of the social construction and practical appropriation of living spaces (Lussault, 2014).

Addressing sustainability challenges requires the collaboration of various stakeholders beyond local government, as decisions made by different individuals and organizations influence the future on a daily basis. To engage multiple stakeholders effectively, it is important to view everyone as decision-makers contributing their perspectives and positions.

While current transition research provides insights into past transitions and case studies, it seems to be less effective in designing real interventions (Zolfagharian, Walrave et al., 2019). This research aims to bridge the gap between social sciences and design research, aligning with Simon's (1969) concept of design science. By adopting a mixed-method approach, the study will focus on designing interventions that combine the traditional top-down approach with a bottom-up perspective.

To design effective transitions, the study centers around the concept of a natural third place, which allows for the co-creation of urban spaces with nature. The concept of the third place, as described by Oldenburg (1991), typically pertains to spaces dedicated to individual social capital building and the production of relational assets. Suire (2013) emphasizes the significance of territorial embedding for the success and performance of third places. Therefore, building mutually beneficial connections among actors within a city is crucial. Previous studies on third places have mainly
focused on externalities and assumptions, neglecting the collection of qualitative and quantitative data (Besson, 2018). Thus, the mixed-method approach employed in this study will contribute to filling the gap in current scientific research. Furthermore, the exploration of natural third places will be conducted through an examination of Community Gardens (CGs).

The history of CGs traces back to the "Green guerillas" of New York, led by Liz Christy, in 1974. Gardening is used as an urban planning tool in the ongoing urban transition movement. CGs have been associated with guerrilla gardening, where they serve as a tool for protesting against urban policies and advocating for alternative ideologies proposed by city dwellers themselves (Cangelosi, 2015). These gardens aim to achieve a more egalitarian distribution of environmental amenities and improve accessibility for populations excluded from traditional public spaces. Through the sharing of resources and practices, CGs foster new solidarities within neighborhoods and initiate alternative forms of governance.

Influenced by the United States, the emergence of CGs in Europe took place in the late 1990s. CGs provide an opportunity to reintroduce urban nature into the urban fabric: whether at the base of building, in the heart of a neighborhood, or on wasteland awaiting real estate development, the ephemeral nature of these gardens does not hinder their multiplication throughout the territory (Schmelzkopf 1995, Ferris et al. 2001, Lawson 2005, Baudry 2010). CGs serve various purposes, including being instruments of sustainable city projects (D'Andréa and Tozzi, 2014), contributors to nature in the city (Blanc, 2013), builders of social ties (Demailly, 2014; Dolley, 2020; Wonjin Jeong, 2021), temporary land occupation projects, and forms of urban agriculture (Aubry et al., 2014). They are valued for their roles in producing economic, social, cultural, environmental, and landscape amenities. However, the multifunctional nature of gardens presents a contradictory dimension, as different stakeholders attribute varying expected functions to CGs (Wegmuller and Duchemin, 2010). This study aims to explore CGs as complex urban entities that embody various political, social, and technical challenges. By examining the practices, processes, and space management of CGs, a deeper understanding of the challenges towards socio-ecological transitions can be achieved.

To comprehend these processes, the study incorporates a comparative analysis on a European scale. While research on CGs has primarily focused on the United States and Western Europe, their popularity is growing throughout the European Union (Goda et al., 2015; Borčić et al., 2016; Spilková, 2017; Van der Jagt et al., 2017). Therefore, it is crucial to diversify research by considering different geographical, social, and political contexts. This study will explore CGs in Belgium and Poland, as both countries are situated at different stages of socio-ecological transition. There have been scientific studies on green areas in some cities of Poland, Warsaw, and Poznan for instance, looking at green infrastructure (Giedrych, 2014), urban agriculture (Szulczewska, 2014), and allotment gardens (Szkup, 2020). However, as of now, there are no studies articulating the motivations of key individuals driving initiatives in the city of Krakow. On the other hand, Brussels CGs have been already explored in terms of social movement practices (Cangelosi, 2015) and connection with the urban agriculture concept (Visser et al., 2016; Zitouni et al., 2018). Even more, both of the city's CGs have never been explored in comparison.

Comparing Krakow and Brussels will shed light on the differences and similarities in social, political, and ecological aspects. The comparison between Western and Eastern contexts allows for the production of empirical evidence on socio-ecological transition practices through the observation of CGs as natural "third places" for communities. The distinct socio-historical contexts of the two cities contribute to different governance and perceptions of CGs, not only among public authorities and green management but also among inhabitants. Brussels' CGs predominantly emerge from bottom-up practices driven by social movements (Zitouni et al., 2018), while in Krakow, the practices seem to be more assimilated with top-down approaches. These differences in context and approach shape the functions and appropriations of CGs. To better understand the motivations and mechanisms behind the co-creation of such green urban spaces, it is essential to delve deeper into these contexts and explore the specific case studies of Krakow and Brussels.

Krakow, the second-largest city in Poland and the capital of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, presents a unique context with its important historical urban and architectural complex listed as a World Heritage site. The city's green spaces, as outlined in the Directions of Development and Management of Green Areas in Krakow 2019–2030 (KRİZTZ), are facing challenges such as an
uneven distribution and a lack of public green spaces. The emergence of new projects, like the Salwator garden<fnref n="1" />, demonstrates the potential for CGs to contribute to the development of green areas in the city.

On the other hand, Brussels, the capital of Belgium and the administrative capital of Europe, offers a different socio-political context. Composed of nineteen communes, each with its own administrative structure, Brussels faces pressure from property developers due to its administrative boundaries. The city has a well-defined green network program that aims to preserve and develop biodiversity by linking different spaces. CGs in Brussels often emerge through bottom-up practices, driven by social movements and challenging urban policies (Zitouni et al., 2018).

By studying these two cities, we can gain insights into the governance, perceptions, and functions of CGs in diverse contexts. Understanding the motivations and mechanisms behind the co-creation of green urban spaces in Krakow and Brussels will contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the potential for CGs to facilitate socio-ecological transitions. Moreover, it will provide empirical evidence and practical knowledge that can be used to inform policy decisions, urban planning strategies, and community engagement initiatives in other cities facing similar challenges and opportunities.

## Navigating the Three Stages of Inquiry in Exploring Community Gardens

This research project will consist of three main stages designed to answer the main research questions. Each stage will have specific aims to develop a comprehensive understanding of the research topic. The comparative study will run parallel to the entire research plan. The work plan is outlined in Table 1, detailing the methodology and steps to be taken during the research project [tab.1]. The stages will be conducted chronologically, while also considering the seasonal schedule.

<table><caption>Table 1: Work plan of the research.</caption><thead><tr><th>Stages</th><th>Specific aim</th><th>Methodology</th><th>Procedures</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1. Mapping and Typologies of CGs</td><td>Identify the implementation of community gardens in European cities context.</td><td>a) Mapping:<br/>- Desk research Analysis<br/>- Participatory mapping of CG in Krakow and Brussels<br/><br/>b) Typologies Qualitative comparative spatial analysis<br/>- Quantized data</td><td>- Data collection of governmental documents and media review<br/>- Field observation of CG<br/>- Web mapping (uMap)<br/><br/>- Multidimensional table realization<br/>- Quantitative data production<br/>- Sampling</td></tr><tr><td>2. Cases Studies and Experimental Project</td><td>Analyze the socio-ecological transitions attitudes and practices in community gardens of Brussels and Krakow.</td><td>a) Case Studies:<br/>- Ethnography<br/>- Semi-structured in-depth and go-alongs interviews<br/><br/>b) Experimental Project:<br/>- Participatory action research<br/>- Semi-structured in-depth and go-alongs interviews</td><td>- Interview protocol<br/>- Visual data collection<br/>- Discourses collection<br/><br/>- Workshop realization<br/>- Interview protocol<br/>- Visual data collection<br/>- Discourses collection</td></tr><tr><td>3. Recommendations</td><td>Determine the role of community gardens as natural third places in socio-ecological context, to establish co-created recommendations.</td><td>Analysis:<br/>- Mixed-method analysis<br/>- Comparative analysis</td><td>- Qualitative and quantitative analysis (coding with Dedoose)<br/>- Redaction of guideline report<br/>- Discussion of implications and areas of future research</td></tr></tbody></table>

### Stage 1: Mapping and Typologies of Community Gardens

The primary objective of this stage is to identify and classify CGs in Brussels and Krakow. The process aims to uncover the connections between community gardens and other green spaces in

<footnote n="1">¹ The Salwator garden was established in 2018. It is inspired by permaculture and urban gardening. More information can be found at the following link https://www.facebook.com/SalwatorGarden</footnote>
both cities, while exploring the social, economic, political, and environmental factors that contribute to the emergence of CGs. Stage 1 will be divided into two procedures: mapping and typologies.

Mapping (1.a): The initial step of the research involves creating a database of CGs in both cities. This will be achieved through desk research and informal interviews. Desk research will involve collecting data from official documents, local greenery sources, ecological and food associations, local media, and scientific publications. Informal interviews with inhabitants will complement the desk research, verifying, confirming, and expanding the existing mapping. Participatory mapping, facilitated through the online platform uMap, will be utilized to engage local communities, and incorporate their values and knowledge into the representation of their living spaces.

Typologies (1.b): As CGs display a wide range of forms, sizes, and temporal dynamics, developing typologies becomes essential. These typologies will assist in understanding the diversity and functions of CGs, utilizing existing taxonomies from scientific literature. The typologies will be instrumental in selecting case studies for Stage 2.

## Stage 2: Case Studies and Experimental Project

Stage 2 aims to extend and experiment with the findings from Stage 1. It comprises the selection of case studies and the implementation of an experimental project.

Case Studies (2.a): Based on the data collected in Stage 1, the author will select at least two case studies in each city, considering different localities, practices, and social capital. The selection will be guided by the developed typologies and contribute to the existing scientific literature on CGs, providing insights into the attitudes and practices of inhabitants in community garden development.

Experimental Project (2.b): The "Experiment Community Garden" will be developed through participatory action research, involving non-researchers in the research process. The project will be implemented on the Jagiellonian University Campus, engaging UJ multinational students (through the Erasmus program) and neighborhood inhabitants. Stakeholder participation throughout the research process will ensure the internal validity of information, knowledge quality, and sustainability of the actions undertaken.

## Stage 3: Recommendations

The final stage focuses on providing recommendations for further research on the co-creation of CGs within the theoretical framework of natural third places. Building upon the analysis of Stages 1 and 2, this stage will outline principles for achieving quality urban design. The recommendations will consider the interests of CG users, as well as developers and designers of natural third places. The research data collected in each city will enable a clear understanding of the research topic, accompanied by explanatory illustrations. The impact of the study may also lead to the production of a design guide applicable at local, national, and European levels.

Throughout the research, a comparative analysis will be conducted to compare the characteristics and diversity of approaches towards CGs as natural third places in Brussels and Krakow. This analysis will encompass political perspectives, including discourses, ecological social movements, and urban policies. Additionally, the analysis will explore social practices and attitudes towards nature in different contexts, enhancing the understanding of natural third place perceptions in European cities. The findings from the comparative study will contribute to the development of an appropriate design guide at the European scale.

## Harnessing a Mixed-Method Approach in Investigating Community Gardens

To comprehensively address the research questions and explore the complex phenomenon of socio-ecological transition in CGs as natural third places, a mixed-method approach will be employed. The combination of qualitative and quantitative methods enhances the understanding of research problems and complex phenomena more effectively than either approach alone. According to Creswell and Plano Clark (2011), a mixed-method study involves the collection and analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data separately to address the research questions. This approach allows for the integration of the strengths of both methodologies, advancing the scholarly conversation and providing a complete picture of the research phenomenon.
In this study, an exploratory mixed-method research (MMR) design will be used to develop the concept of natural third places on a European scale. The research will employ a concurrent exploratory design, where qualitative and quantitative data will be collected and analysed independently in separate strands to answer the research questions. The methodology consists of three stages, each building upon the previous one [fig.1].

<figure><img src="image_335.png" /><figcaption>Figure 1: Mixed-method Multistrand Design.</figcaption></figure>

## Qualitative Data Collection

The first stage focuses on qualitative data collection. A participatory mapping process will be initiated to map the CGs using the uMap online platform, which allows for the creation of an interactive and collaborative online map on an OpenStreetMap (OSM) background. This participatory mapping will involve desk research, field observations, and informal interviews. Desk research will involve analyzing media, official documents, and scholarly publications related to community gardens using internet research and specific keywords. Field observations and informal interviews with local residents will be conducted to validate the findings and gather narrative descriptions from CG users. Visual data such as photographs will also be integrated into the web mapping process.

## Qualitative Analysis and Transformation

The data collected in the first stage will contribute to the development of typologies, which will help categorize and understand the different functions and appropriations of CGs based on their territories. Social, environmental, economic, and political attributes of each garden will be identified and combined to create type criteria. The relevant types will be selected to clarify and answer the specific research questions. The typologies will be coded in a multidimensional table. Additionally, the qualitative data will be quantized by transforming the qualitative typologies into quantitative data using binary variables (e.g., 1 for "present" and 0 for "absent"). This transformation will simplify the integration of qualitative data into the experimental project and provide numerical values alongside narrative descriptions.

## Mixed Data Collection

Stage 2 involves the collection of mixed data from case studies (2.a) and the experimental project (2.b). Case studies will be selected based on the qualitative analysis conducted in the previous stage. Qualitative methods, specifically ethnography, will be employed to observe and explore CG case studies in different cities. Ethnography allows the researcher to both participate in everyday life and
observe from a distance, capturing visual and narrative data. Semi-structured in-depth interviews and "go-along" interviews will be conducted to understand the behaviors and practices of participants, providing a deeper understanding of the lived experiences in CGs. The number of interviews conducted will depend on data saturation, where new insights are no longer obtained.

The quantized qualitative data analysis developed in the typologies will be integrated into an experimental project. The independent and dependent variables will be assigned based on the results of Stage 1. The experiment project will follow a participatory action research approach, involving students from multiple nationalities, local students, and neighborhood inhabitants. The project will have two phases: empathizing with participants' personal insights and defining their objectives regarding the design of CG projects, and developing prototypes for testing and learning in action. The qualitative method will ensure the integration and observation of participants' personal experiences throughout the project.

## Mixed Data Analysis

In the final stage, the author will analyze the results of both qualitative and quantitative data. All collected data will be coded using Dedoose software, a web-based application for organizing research data. Data triangulation will be employed to gain a deeper understanding of the research phenomenon. The results of the mixed-method analysis will contribute to the development of conclusions and recommendations. This meta-inference will assist the author in creating a design guide report based on visual results, supporting the dissemination of the project.

Given the qualitative dominance of the methodology, ethical considerations are essential. The rights, values, needs, and desires of each informant will be respected throughout the research process. Safeguards will be implemented to protect the rights of informants, including clear articulation of research objectives, obtaining writing permission, informing participants about data collection devices and activities, providing verbatim transcriptions and interpretations, and considering the interests and wishes of participants when reporting data.

## Embarking on the Exploration: Unveiling First Results of the Initial Stage

The initial stage of our research has yielded promising findings, shedding light on the functions and appropriations of CGs as natural third places. Through an immersive qualitative data collection and analysis process, we have gained valuable insights into these transformative spaces. Our exploration encompassed participatory mapping, desk research, field observations, and informal interviews, resulting in a rich dataset comprising narrative descriptions, visual data, and contextual information.

In Brussels, the participatory mapping process, successfully finalized with the assistance of CG practitioners, resulted in the monitoring of 203 CGs [fig.2]. The mapping exercise visually represented the distribution of existing CGs across the city. In Krakow, the mapping process is ongoing, with 16 CGs currently being monitored [fig.3], providing valuable insights into the unique characteristics of CGs in this context.
<figure><img src="image_336.png" /><figcaption>Figure 2: Participatory mapping of community gardens in Brussels. Source: uMap, Fanny Téoule.</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_337.png" /><figcaption>Figure 3: Participatory mapping of community gardens in Krakow. Source: uMap, Fanny Téoule.</figcaption></figure>

The involvement of CG practitioners in the mapping process ensured the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the collected data, enhancing the reliability of our findings. Additionally, an online survey targeting CG practitioners was conducted to gather additional insights, perspectives, and practices related to CGs. This survey provided valuable input and complemented our qualitative data collection efforts, enriching our dataset and providing a broader range of perspectives.

Brussels has a longer history and more established infrastructure in community gardening, with a significant growth in the number of CGs since the 2000s. In contrast, Krakow faced challenges due
to the impact of communism on urban agriculture, resulting in a delayed growth of CGs. However, both cities recognize the importance of CGs in promoting social cohesion, environmental sustainability, and food security. They provide supportive networks, involve municipal support and citizen participation, and emphasize inclusivity, education, and environmental awareness. Brussels exhibits stronger social and community-building aspects, while Krakow focuses more on environmental and educational aspects. Additionally, CGs in Brussels benefit from specific regulations that protect them from development pressures, whereas CGs in Krakow lack explicit recognition and legal protection.

Due to the limited availability of data on CGs, we recognized the need to gather additional insights from practitioners in the field. To address this gap, we conducted an online survey targeting CG practitioners. The survey aimed to gather information on their experiences, perspectives, and practices related to CGs. By engaging directly with practitioners, we sought to enhance our understanding of the intricate dynamics and nuances associated with these spaces. The online survey provided us with valuable input and allowed us to gather a broader range of perspectives from different geographical locations. The responses complemented our qualitative data collection efforts, enriching our dataset and providing a more comprehensive view of community gardens in Central and Western European cities.

The qualitative analysis has played a pivotal role in our research, facilitating the development of typologies that categorize CGs based on their social, environmental, economic, and political attributes. This typology framework provides a robust foundation for our future investigations, enabling us to understand the diverse manifestations of CGs and their unique characteristics and contributions. The typologies for CGs have been developed based on distinct emergence reasons, management factors, locator factors, and functions. The emergence reasons identified encompass food security (Hagey and al., 2013), educational (Blair, 2009), social (Wakefield et al., 2007), environmental cities (Langemeyer and al., 2017), and economic aspects (Burley and al., 2011), which exert influence on the goals, outcomes, and stakeholders involved in CG initiatives. The management factors identified include top-down (Zhang and al., 2022), bottom-up (Janst al., 2020; Derlukwiczn and al, 2021), hybrid (Towopeus and al., 2020; Faehnle, 2014), and collaborative (Momen, 2020; Van de Meene and al., 2020) approaches. The selection of a particular management approach significantly impacts the success and long-term viability of CG projects, each with its own inherent benefits and limitations. In terms of locator factors, five distinct categories were identified: rooftop (Wong and al., 2003; Benis and al., 2018), street (Zabret and al., 2015; Im, 2019), courtyard (Knight and al., 2021; Lee, 2015), wasteland (Gasperi and al., 2016; McGuire and al., 2022), and campus gardens (Ridgeway and al., 2015; Adam and al., 2023). Each category offers unique advantages and potential applications for CGs, as substantiated by scientific research. Lastly, the functions of CGs were classified into four categories: cultural (Wakefield et al., 2007), community-building (Hagey and al., 2013), therapeutic (Soga and al., 2017), and natural habitat (Cabral and al., 2017). These functions highlight the diverse benefits and potential applications of CGs within the context of sustainable urban practices.

It is therefore crucial to overlap these categories to comprehensively address the multifaceted aspects of urban sustainability. By integrating and focusing on the socio-ecological features, we can enhance the understanding and implementation of CGs as catalysts for socio-ecological transitions. These gardens can contribute to sustainable urban practices, promoting environmental stewardship, social well-being, and economic resilience in cities. Thus, the typology of socio-ecological transition integrates sustainable infrastructure, circular economy, social equity, biodiversity and ecosystem services, and education and awareness. By closely CGs and their components, we can effectively address and understand the typology of socio-ecological transition. The diverse elements within CGs, such as sustainable infrastructure, resource efficiency, social inclusivity, biodiversity support, and educational initiatives, provide tangible examples of how these typology features can be implemented on a local scale. Through the study and analysis of CGs, we gain valuable insights into the practical application and effectiveness of the socio-ecological transition typology, further advancing our understanding of sustainable urban practices.

These initial findings and the typologies developed based on qualitative analysis provide a robust foundation for further investigations. The quantization process of qualitative data enhances their accessibility and applicability in subsequent stages of our research. The selection of case studies for
the mixed data collection stage has been informed by these initial findings, allowing for a deeper
exploration of specific aspects and nuances of CGs.

In conclusion, the initial results have shed light on the transformative power of CGs as natural third places. These findings highlight their potential to foster socio-ecological transitions and contribute to sustainable urban practices. Building upon this foundation, our research will continue to delve deeper into the intricate dynamics and nuances of CGs through in-depth interviews, going along interviews, and ethnographic observations. By further unraveling the complexities of these spaces, we aim to contribute to the creation of thriving socio-ecological communities and the advancement of sustainable urban practices.

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# Contesting urban space: socio-ecological questions and the revisiting of the Brussels' counterproject

Dries Pattyn and Eline Inghelbrecht

Affiliation: KU Leuven, Department of Architecture

Supervisor(s): prof. Bruno Notteboom; prof. Martino Tattara; prof. Sven Sterken, dr. Koenraad Danneels

Expected thesis defence: January 2027

dries.pattyn@kuleuven.be and eline.inghelbrecht@kuleuven.be

This paper compares the historical case of the urban redevelopment project for the Maelbeek Valley in the 1970s with the current development for the Josaphat site in Brussels, by focusing on alternative designs proposed by urban activists. By juxtaposing both cases, the role of alternative design proposals in discussions on urban development, the social and ecological claims that centered urban debates and the organization of citizen participation within urban development procedures will be analyzed. The aim of this research is to gain new insights in current social and ecological urban questions by comparing a historical and contemporary case and combining historical research with design research. This paper draws on literature from the fields of architectural history, urban history and ecological urbanism and uses archival resources for case study research.

## Introduction

Brussels' urban development is severely shaken up by a debate concerning the Josaphat site, a vacant and rewilded area, or *friche*, in the north of Brussels, where the Brussels Capital Region (BCR) plans to develop a mixed neighborhood including housing, commerce, schools and a park (Perspective Brussels, 2018). The adopted planning procedure has been widely contested by the Brussels' citizens, because of its undemocratic nature and because the site has over the years grown into a highly biodiverse area, which is crucial in times of climate urgency (BRAL & Natagora, 2021). To bolster these claims, neighborhood committees have associated with institutionalized nature and citizens' organizations in Brussels and organized many public actions, such as petitions, demonstrations, and press conferences. Moreover, the neighborhood committees and citizens' organizations have published a manifesto in 2021, in which they addressed the regional government with the proposal to co-create the development plan for the site. As a starting point for the discussions, five alternative designs were proposed (BRAL & Natagora, 2021). While discussions on the development of the site are ongoing, having caused a fracture within the regional government (BELGA, 2023), a building permit for over five hundred housing units was granted in April 2023 (RV & SVG, 2023).

The heavy contestation against large-scale urban development projects is not new to Brussels. Being referred to as 'the city of 100 action committees' (Demey, 1992), Brussels is known for its active citizen participation, that originated in the 1960s as a reaction to the massive destruction of the historical urban tissue and was inspired by the global revolts of 1968 and sociologists Henri Lefebvre (1968) and Manuel Castells (1972) arguing for 'the right to the city' (Lagrou, 2003). New citizens' organizations representing neighborhood residents, such as Atelier de Recherches et d'Action Urbaines (ARAU) and Inter-Environnement Bruxelles (IEB) took the lead in the discussions (Demey, 1992). In many western cities a more democratic city planning was attempted through 'advocacy planning', whereby experts seek to represent urban groups and communities that are traditionally not included in the urban planning processes (Peatty, 1968). Moreover, the emerging post-modernist architectural tradition focused on more user-based architecture, dismissing the architect as the top figure (Doucet, 2013). In Brussels, this led to a close collaboration between architectural institutions La Cambre and Archives d'Architecture Moderne (AAM), citizens' organizations ARAU and IEB and neighborhood committees, who were linked by architect and professor Maurice Culot. In this collaboration advocacy planning was pursued by the creation of alternative design proposals called 'counterprojects' (Corijn et al., 2023). Though the creation of counterprojects was a common tool in the Reconstruction of the European City paradigm propagated by architect Léon Krier, the collaboration between different actors was unique to Brussels (Doucet, 2013). According to Krier and Culot, counterprojects found their way into the public debate in Brussels because 'urban form' and 'urban struggle' are inseparable (Krier and Culot, 1980). Counterprojects were extensively researched by Isabelle Doucet, who argues that "in the form of a drawing-manifesto, counterprojects functioned as a critical-theoretical tool for architecture: namely,
between a critical statement and a concrete vision for the future” (Doucet, 2013, p. 235). Acting as provocateurs (Delevoy et al., 1975), the projects aimed to stimulate debates and negotiations by demonstrating alternative designs. The ‘ligne claire’ was the graphic language, because it could be easily reproduced in black and white in newspapers or magazines. Furthermore, axonometric projections were preferred because of their ability to convey projects effectively in a single drawing, particularly useful for political decision-making (Culot, 1984). Additional models, perspective and sectional drawings made it easier to communicate the counterprojects through press conferences, publications, seminars and neighbourhood tours (Schoonbrodt, 1984). The designs often pictured citizens as active users of the city and promoted the reconstructed city as a social meeting place (Doucet, 2015). Increasingly inspired by the traditional European city, the designs depict an urban form that was cohesive and familiar to the inhabitants (Delevoy et al., 1978). Counterprojects thus clearly connected a disciplinary critique to real-world activism (Doucet, 2015).

One of the early examples of counterprojects dealt with the renovation project for the Maelbeek Valley, taking place during the 1970s. This renovation project stirred region-wide discussions on the urban development of Brussels, reminding us to the Josaphat case. The Maelbeek Valley was equally considered as a strategic development zone for the Brussels region, fitting into a large-scale network of urban highways, the development of the housing stock, and the creation of an ecological network (Danneels, 2021).

<figure><img src="image_338.png" /><figcaption>[fig.1] The Maelbeek Valley and Friche Josaphat cases situated in the Brussels-Capital Region. Retraced route of the disappeared Maelbeek stream (blue) in relation to the planned expressway (red) included in Plan Groupe Alpha/BSRO of 1971. Source: Orthophoto 1971 from UrbIS, further elaborated by the authors.</figcaption></figure>
By juxtaposing the renovation of the Maelbeek Valley with the Josaphat development plan [fig.1], this paper tries to understand how design is mobilized in discussions on the city's urban development and which wider contexts surround these discussions. Firstly, the use and agency of alternative designs in urban development questions in Brussels will be analyzed. Afterwards, this paper will dive into the social and ecological claims that centered these debates and designs. Finally, an evaluation will be made of how citizens participated in these debates. By adopting a 'history of the present' approach, often used in urban design research and ecological urbanism (De Block, 2016; Adams, 2018; Danneels, 2021), this paper aims to get insights in today's urban development context as well as learn from how urban struggles were tackled in the past. This paper fits into a larger research project that links contemporary design research to historical research, exploring the role of history in understanding and addressing current debates in urban development. First, the historical case for the renovation of the Maelbeek Valley will be explained, followed by the case of the Josaphat site. Afterwards, both cases will be compared based on the use of the alternative designs in the discussions, the balance between social and ecological claims and the degree of citizen participation. The paper will be closed with a conclusion, posing questions for debate and further research.

## Retrieving the origins in the Maelbeek Valley

The Maelbeek Valley was the first area subject to cross-municipal discussion, for which a long iterative process of development plans and counterprojects took place. Following a logic of functional zoning, the Maelbeek Valley was intended to become a strategic express way [fig.2]. This construction would obliterate more than 30 building blocks, bypass the few remaining green areas in the valley and transform lively squares into traffic interchanges (*Wonen-TA/BK*, 1975), all leading to expropriation of over four thousand original inhabitants (Het Laatste Nieuws, 1977). What was envisioned as a 'green corridor' by urban planners and landscape architects (De Beule, Périlleux and Silvestre, 2017), would become an asphalted barrier.

<figure><img src="image_339.png" /><figcaption>[fig.2] The design of the expressway as part of the Main Road Network of 1971. The plan requires the expropriation (dotted hatch) of entire building blocks in Schaerbeek, Etterbeek and Ixelles.</figcaption></figure>

Source: BSO-D via De Beule, Périlleux and Silvestre, 2017, p.360

ARAU, IEB and a newly formed association of neighborhood committees opposed this top-down urbanism which was, according to Danneels (2021, p. 228), “the starting point of a counterculture for which Brussels is still known today”. Together with the neighborhood committees, architecture students of Culot developed several counterprojects for the Maelbeek Valley. Levy and Mierop first demonstrated the excessive social and financial costs of the expressway (*Wonen-TA/BK*, 1975), but seem to take the street renovation as an opportunity to rehabilitate the existing urban morphology and reintroduce green spaces and ponds benefitting the residents [fig.3]. Student P. Lefebvre alternatively used a manifesto-like approach resembling the London AA School and Archigram, by depicting a naked woman as a metaphor for a viaduct [fig.4/5], arguing that alluring architectural images do not necessarily offer socio-economic beneficial guarantees to the population (Delevoy et al., 1975; Doucet, 2015).
<figure><img src="image_340.png" /><figcaption>[fig.3] Early counterproject (1971-1973) by M. Culot's students Mierop and Levy for a renewed urban morphology if a widening of Rue Gray would be implemented. Source: La Cambre, Atelier M.Culot et M. Pesleux, Projet d'aménagement de la vallée du Maelbeek 1971-1973, retrieved at CIVA, Brussels</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_341.png" /><figcaption>[fig.4] Lefebvre's surreal counterproject for a new bridge over Rue Gray in the framework of the counterproject displayed in fig.2. The women, referring to the imposed urban development plans, metaphorically implies that alluring architectural images do not guarantee any socio-economic measurements benefiting the local population. Source: La Cambre, Atelier M.Culot et M. Pesleux, Projet d'aménagement de la vallée du Maelbeek 1971-1973, retrieved at CIVA, Brussels</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_342.png" /><figcaption>[fig.5] The new bridge with its depiction of a naked woman integrates commercial functions within its structure. Source: La Cambre, Atelier M.Culot et M. Pesleux, Projet d'aménagement de la vallée du Maelbeek 1971-1973, retrieved at CIVA, Brussels</figcaption></figure>

ARAU presented a more realistic counterproject advocating for housing renovation, the extension of Leopold Park, and the potential integration of the European institutions around the Luxemburg station. Together with IEB, they fueled the public debate with press conferences, publications, tours, and aimed to establish a dialogue with decision makers. In response, the roundtable of the Maelbeek was established by the alderman of urbanism, seeking consensus between the responsible decision makers of the Agglomeration and the municipalities, experts, and the action committees. This roundtable resulted in a more social, economic, and ecological vision for the renovation of the Maelbeek Valley and eventually a compromised plan [fig.6] that abolished the express way, included housing renovation and greenery, but still proposed to widen the traffic road (Agglomération de Bruxelles, 1973).

<figure><img src="image_343.png" /><figcaption>[fig.6] Compromised plan for the redevelopment after the first set of Maelbeek roundtables of 1973. Source: Agglomération de Bruxelles, 1973, retrieved at CIVA, Brussels</figcaption></figure>
Despite these efforts, a plan to construct the European institution offices in the valley was launched [fig.7], trespassing designated housing areas, and neglecting the promised social housing (Wonen-TA/BK, 1975). Together with new plans for road infrastructure [fig.8], this was again contested by IEB, ARAU and the neighborhood committees with counterprojects advocating for a better integration of the European institutions into the historical urban fabric, guaranteeing mixed functions and neighborhood parks [fig.9] (Conférence de Presse IEB, 1976). Multiple roundtable discussions on the developments in the Maelbeek Valley followed thereafter.

At the beginning of the 1980s, IEB and AAM opposed the expansion of the European institutions with a counterproject [fig.10] proposing to relocate them to a brownfield north of the city, preventing the city centre from housing evictions and a European “ghetto” (d’Helft & Gérard, 1982). This brownfield was the former Josaphat station and the current Josaphat friche. This proposal illustrates a shift in perception of vacant land in the region, which in recent years became increasingly appreciated for its ecological potential.

<figure><img src="image_344.png" /><figcaption>[fig.7] Modernistic plan layout for the new office zone for European Economic Community (EEC). The monofunctional plan would erase and cover the historical urban fabric around the Chaussée D'Etterbeek.
Source: Actualité A+ 11. 1974, Centre de documentation</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_345.png" /><figcaption>[fig.8] The dystopian photocollage rejecting the planned viaduct in the Rue Belliard axes north of Parc Leopold. Source: Press conference dossier of IEB in March 1976, retrieved in CIVA, Brussels</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_346.png" /><figcaption>[fig.9] Alternative proposal for the expansion of the EEC and the rehabilitation of the building blocks on both sides of the Chaussée D'Etterbeek by IEB & Groupement des Comités du Maelbeek. The position of the perspective drawing is indicated on the plan (red). Source: IEB & Groupement des Comités du Maelbeek, 8 juin 1976, retrieved in CIVA, Brussels</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_347.png" /><figcaption>[fig.10] The counterproject of D'Helft and Gerard, on behalf of IEB and the united Maelbeek committees, for the relocation of the EEC onto railway station of Josaphat. Source: 'Extension CEE: Voici l'Alternative Josaphat' 1982, retrieved in CIVA, Brussels</figcaption></figure>

Visualizing alternative futures today: Plan B Josaphat

Now the Josaphat site has become a vast natural area, because of its sandy soil and varied pollination due to the passing trains (Bergers et al., 2023), which made action committees consider the site as a public good with important ecological values, such as biodiversity and mitigation of heat stress and flooding. The region acquired the site in 2014 with the aim of answering the regional need for affordable and social housing, schools, and green spaces (Bergers et al., 2023) and framed it in 2018 as one of the ten ‘strategic’ regional development plans called ‘Plans d’Aménagement Directeur (PAD). Neighbourhood committees and citizens’ organizations opposed these PADs [fig.11], because they perceived the belated consultation procedure as undemocratic and because the PADs would exploit precious green and open spaces, for the creation of offices and unaffordable housing (Scohier and Marsin, 2020). After the publication of the first development plan in 2019 [fig.12], the
process of public enquiry allowed citizens to massively express their objection, leading to a negative advice to proceed with the plan by the advisory council, which is composed of experts and open to citizens (BRAL & NATAGORA et al., 2021).

<figure><img src="image_348.png" /></figure>

[fig.11] Comparison of the PAD/RPA Josaphat between the first version (2019) and the revised version (2021). From 1.600 housing units (public housing for sale: 18%, social housing for sale: 22%, social housing for rent: 5%) to 1.194 dwellings (public housing for sale: 18%, social housing for sale: 5%, social housing for rent: 22 %), the revised version includes a 'Biopark' of 1,3ha northwest of the central railroad. Source: UrbIS, Strategisch Luik RPA Josaphat 2019, Strategisch Luik RPA Josaphat 2021

<figure><img src="image_349.png" /></figure>

[fig.12] The planned construction phasing within the first PAD. Source: Beliris, 2019

While awaiting a revised plan, institutionalized citizens' organizations, neighborhood committees and nature associations jointly launched 'Manifesto Plan B Josaphat', proposing five alternative designs with a different focus, but a shared objective of leaving the existing natural area unbuilt (BRAL & NATAGORA et al., 2021). The local action committee proposed to preserve the *friche* as a natural park, focusing on education and recreation (Sauvons la friche Josaphat), while nature organization Natagora displayed the *friche* as a natural area within a simplified zoning plan. More systematic frameworks to integrate the built program, through densification and rehabilitation, while preserving the ecological value were proposed by Team Leopold III [fig.13] and E. Diez (BRAL &
NATAGORA et al., 2021; ‘I love Josaphat’, 2021). J. Bergers (2023) presented a ‘more-than-human’ landscape structure, portraying different habitat types formed by ecological succession zones and ‘places of encounter’ through the interplay of architectural and landscape elements.

<figure><img src="image_350.png" /><figcaption>[fig.13] The counterproposal ‘I Love Josaphat’ of Team Leopold III (Jeroen Beerten and Karel Bruyland) seeks to balance the build and ecological claims on site. Source: Team Leopold III, 2021</figcaption></figure>

Following the unfavorable advice, though without reacting to the Plan B or initiating dialogue, the regional authorities altered the plan by modifying a part of the site into a biopark, calling it “a multifunctional neighborhood, answering the ecological challenges and the need for affordable housing” (Perspective Brussels, 2021). This modification was inadequate according to the public consultation and the public debate continued, resulting in more confrontational action methods by the action committees such as petitions and demonstrations (Sauvons la friche Josaphat, no dat). Moreover, governmental discussions came to a dead end as the socialist parties argue to proceed with construction to tackle the housing crisis, whereas the green parties want to cease the development plan (BELGA & BRUZZ, 2023). As the official PAD procedure could not lead to consensus, the responsibilities were handed over to the regional development companies who proceeded with the development plans and proposed a masterplan for over five hundred housing units [fig.14] in April 2023 (RV & SVG, 2023), which is perceived by citizens’ organizations as an act against the democratic procedures (BRAL, 2023).
<figure><img src="image_351.png" /></figure>

[fig.14] Masterplan for the 1st phase construction, bypassing the PAD procedure. The birdview image highlights the 'added' natural value. Source: Eiffage-Axa via Josaphat.be, April 2023

## Tracing Historical-Contemporary Intersections and Contrasts

### Activist Designs: Shaping Urban Plans Through Collaborative Counterprojects

Both the Maelbeek and Josaphat case show how action groups succeeded in influencing the public debate and eventually the development plans of public authorities through their site-specific analyses and alternative designs addressing the social and environmental challenges. In the case of the Maelbeek valley, the first counterprojects were developed in student ateliers at the architectural school, where internal debates on the socio-political circumstances in relationship to architecture and city planning seemed commonplace. From the different student projects it is noticeable that the counterprojects not only criticized the imposed road construction plans, but also used socio-political arguments (see P. Lefebvre provocative design reacting to the plans of colleague-students B. Levy and C. Mierop). Their design efforts proved to be especially impactful when collaborating with ARAU, IEB and neighborhood groups in the Maelbeek Valley. While these collaborations seemed pivotal in the past, for Josaphat collaborations of a different kind took place, in which architectural theory and academics in general did not have such a prominent role. Looking at the past, it be hypothesized that collaborations with influential architectural or academic figures could strengthen the argumentation and dissemination of alternative designs. Moreover, in the 1970s counterproposals by ARAU and IEB were widely spread in the media. While today the Josaphat case is also a hot topic in the media, there seems to be no room for the alternative designs of the Plan B.

When analyzing the designs of the counterproposals, the changes within drawing tools and representation techniques are undeniable. Technological advancements, such as GIS and digital drawing, opened a range of opportunities to communicate projects to the professions, authorities, and the public. The sober use of black lines and hatched plans, perspectives and axonometric plans found in the discourse of the 1970s and 80s have been replaced with expressive colored, rendered, perfectioned, atmospheric imagery. Nevertheless, several parallels can be drawn between the historical and contemporary cases. Firstly, axonometric and eye-height perspectives have stayed the clearest ways to communicate plans to the wider public. Secondly, in both cases multiple design scenarios for specific sites were developed, which illustrates that there is no single suitable option. Finally, social and environmental concerns are emphasized by incorporating natural or human subjects in many of the three-dimensional drawings. With the emergence of digital tools, the reflection should be made that there is no longer an equal distribution of resources of activist groups compared to the commercial sector. In a sense, the analogous techniques of the past allowed a fight with equal weapons. Action groups today largely lack this expertise, the budget, and the time to be
able to compete with high-end (multidisciplinary) teams producing convincing designs and visualisations.

*Nuancing social and environmental paradigms then and now*

The Manifesto Plan B Josaphat’s spatial focus was on the ecological value and opportunities, rather than creating concrete urban design schemes. The ecological rationale proves to be at the top of the action committees’ agendas, informed by the environmental sciences and their ominous predictions for cities worldwide. In the case of the Maelbeek Valley, the main concern of the residents was to defend their living environment. They aimed to protect their neighborhood from functionalist and capitalist urbanism, which would replace housing with office buildings and prioritize car traffic. In the proceedings of the first roundtables, many references are made to the original structure of the river valley. While its function as a natural corridor was celebrated, its deterioration of the residential areas through flooding was also emphasized with a call for new water collectors. The roundtable also proposed strategies for creating a mixed-use neighborhood through housing renovation, the creation of additional (social) housing, and the promotion of local commerce and artisanship. This would go in parallel with the revegetation of the valley, reintroduction of ponds and improved pedestrian accessibility (Agglomération de Bruxelles, 1973). The environmental concerns are also present in the claims for a more humane living environment by creating public parks and green courtyards, which would also enrich the region’s fauna and flora (ARAU, 1984). The importance of mixed-use neighborhoods propagated within historical counterprojects aligns with the current urbanism discourse of the BCR and is exemplified by the development plans for the Josaphat site as a mixed-use and green neighborhood (Eiffage-Axa, 2023). According to activists, citizens’ organizations and green political parties, the benefits of biodiversity preservation and mitigating heat stress and flooding outweigh the limited number of proposed social housing units. While the Maelbeek Valley case highlighted the coexistence of social and environmental arguments, the Josaphat case revealed a direct opposition between mixed-use development and ecology. The argumentation to reject green space-only scenarios to tackle the social housing crisis on the Josaphat site is also underpinned by the economic costs of deviating from existing plans. Economic drivers are decisive in both cases, where the financial benefits of road and office construction were prioritised over housing expropriations in the Maelbeek Valley (Conférence de Presse IEB, 1976), the development of the Josaphat district should valorise the land acquisition and studies made.

From comparing the Maelbeek and Josaphat cases it can be concluded that the environmental and ecological discourse has evolved significantly over the past 50 years. In the case of the Maelbeek, environmental concerns were framed within the functional and aesthetical amelioration of the urban landscape, benefiting its residents. And whereas solutions for flood prevention were sought in engineering, for the Josaphat case, the green space is considered as a solution for water collection and infiltration. Moreover, proposals such as the 1980 plan by B. D'Helft and A. Gerard to relocate the European institutions to a vacant area, would no longer fit into today's rationale of action committees, which now has a stronger ecological focus. Today, action committees argue to preserve vacant city areas, to protect animal and plant species on the site and mitigate climate change effects.

*A seat at the table: official instruments for citizen consultation and participation*

In the 1970s, public participation was not officially part of the urban planning procedures. However, citizens found a way to make their claims heard in the planning process of the Maelbeek Valley. The roundtable initiated by the alderman of urbanism of the Brussels Agglomeration was a response to the heavy contestation of citizens’ organizations and neighborhood committees (Agglomération de Bruxelles, 1973). They acquired a seat at the table, but, having no decision-making power, they relied on support from other members of the roundtable. According to the political opportunity structure approach within social movement research, the receptiveness of the political system, including “the informal strategies of the political elites” (Van der Heijden, 1997, p. 30) are an influential to the success of a social movement. In this case, the informal strategies adopted by the alderman of urbanism, were clearly favorable towards the citizens’ organizations. In 1979, an official consultation process was adopted in the region in the format of public enquiry and an advisory council, which was considered a victory (Doucet, 2015). For Josaphat, these participatory procedures resulted in unfavorable advice for the development plans. Afterwards, however, a further democratic process
was avoided. And while for the case of the Maelbeek Valley, the roundtable was a format for
discussion, the request for a dialogue expressed by the Manifesto Plan B Josaphat remained
unanswered by the regional authorities. While citizens' organizations like ARAU, IEB and BRAL
have over the years developed expertise and political embeddedness (Bergers et al., 2023), this
institutionalization did not necessarily lead to a better integration of citizens' concerns. Firstly,
because the consultation procedure is too limited and comes late into the process, and secondly
because citizens' organisations are still not welcomed by many governmental councils (BRAL, 2021).
The late stage of communicating development plans has always been a frustration of citizens. During
the 1970s, plans were a *fait accompli* once they reached the inhabitants. Therefore, the roundtable of
the Maelbeek can be considered as a pioneering case in changing this pattern. It is important to note
that citizen participation is not only measured by roundtables and consultation procedures.
According to the political opportunity structure paradigm, a lack of access points to the political
decision-making process results in a higher number of unconventional actions (Van der Heijden,
1997). Both cases show an iterative process of unconventional actions, such as petitions, press
conferences, demonstrations and of course the counterprojects, and conventional participation
through the roundtable discussions and public consultation procedures. Eventually, in both cases the
initial development plans were revised and adopted elements proposed by the citizens. For the
Maelbeek Valley, the express way was taken out of the development plan in 1973 and for the Josaphat
site, increased attention was paid to biodiversity in the format of a biopark in the second proposal
and later by proposing to safeguard part of the *friche* and create a lower density. These revised plans
might not have met the expectations of the citizens, but they were certainly influenced by the citizens'
claims.

Conclusions

From the comparison between the Maelbeek Valley and the Josaphat site can be concluded that, though both cases are situated in a specific political, economic, social, and ecological context, there are many resemblances. Firstly, in both cases, activists grouped together to counter the development plans that were proposed by the regional authorities and driven by economic logic. Design has proven to be a useful tool for activists to invoke a public debate. Even if the alternative designs were not intended to be built, they put claims on the table and provided opportunities to revise development plans. Secondly, the citizens' organizations addressed environmental and ecological aspects, which was not always emphasized in literature on the Maelbeek Valley. Nevertheless, perceptions of 'the environmental' and 'the ecological' have evolved over the past decades, and now take a much more prominent role in the argumentation of citizens and the public debate, shown by the Josaphat case. When it comes to participation, a lack of access to the political decision-making process was experienced then and now. Even now that citizen participation and consultation is officially incorporated in planning procedures, citizens' perspectives are still insufficiently recognized, driving them to resort to more public actions. Could it then be argued that older instruments for participation such as the roundtables, answering directly to the actions of citizens' organizations, the predecessors of the advisory committees, were more effective? The main aim of this paper was to create a dialogue between the past and the present debates within the urban development of Brussels. While only preliminary conclusions can be made, as the research on both cases is still in an early stage, the comparison shows that by revisiting historical cases, new perspectives and insights can be gained to look at urban questions today. This paper argues that more understanding of the tensions that typify the urban development of Brussels can be gained from juxtaposing historical cases, with more recent ones, specifically regarding social and ecological tensions which have thus far been underrepresented in the academic literature. Moreover, this paper wants to open the discussion on the role of design in researching urban questions. From this research can be concluded that alternative design is a tool for entering the public discussion on urban development processes. However, it can never be seen as an isolated element. Upcoming research will further investigate the role of design in a wide range of historical, contested developments in Brussels and prospectively incorporate gained knowledge within design research on a contemporary case with competing social and ecological claims.
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BRAL. (2021) ‘Van droom naar daad - 2) Inspraak & participatie’. BRAL, 20 July. Available at: https://bral.brussels/nl/artikel/van-droom-naar-daad-2-inspraak-participatie. https://bral.brussels/nl/artikel/van-droom-naar-daad-2-inspraak-participatie

BRAL. (2023) ‘Josaphatsite: een schijnvertoning van burgerparticipatie?’ BRAL, 1 March. Available at: https://bral.brussels/nl/josaphat-schijnvertoging-burgerparticipatie

BRAL & Natagora et al. (2021) *Manifesto Plan B Josaphat, een manifest voor een plan B op de Friche Josaphat*. Available at: https://www.sauvonslafrichejosaphat.be/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/MANIFESTO-josaphat_NL-gecomprimeerd.pdf

Bureau Bas Smets (2016) ‘Richtplan Josaphat. Definitie van de openbare ruimten en landschappelijke kwalificatie van de site’.

Corijn, E., De Visscher, J.-P., Périlleux, B., Trigaux, A., Van de Putte, D. and Vermeylen, P. (2023) ‘Burgerparticipatie in een democratische stadsplanning’, *Crd-goc.brussels*. Available at: https://www.crd-goc.be/sites/default/files/2023-05/CRD%2030%20ans_Chapitre%20II%20-%20Participation_def-NL.pdf

Culot, M. (no date) Diversification and activism. Counter projects, AAM Editions. Available at: https://www.aam-editions.com/en/history/ (Accessed: 25 May 2023).

Culot, M. (1984) ‘La Pratique du Contre-projet’, in ARAU and CFC (eds) Bruxelles vu par ses habitants, pp. 29–30.

Danneels, K. (2021) *From Sociobiology to Urban Metabolism: The Interaction of Urbanism, Science and Politics in Brussels, (1900-1978)*. Unpublished PhD thesis. University of Antwerp.

De Beule, M., Périlleux, B. and Silvestre, M. (2017) *Brussel: geplande geschiedenis : stedenbouw in de 19e en 20e eeuw*. Edited by E. Wauty. Translated by C. Peeters. Bruxelles: Meert.

De Block, G. (2016) ‘Ecological Infrastructure in a Critical-Historical Perspective: From Engineering “Social” Territory to Encoding “Natural” Topography’, *Environment and Planning A*, 48(2), pp. 367–390. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X15600719

Delevoy, R.L., Pesleux, M. and Culot, M. (1975) *Le bâteau d'Élie : contributions aux luttes urbaines et projets opportunistes, La Cambre 1971-1975*. Brussels: Archives d'Architecture Moderne.

Delevoy, R.-L. et al. (1978) *La tour ferrée: projets dans la ville*. Bruxelles: Archives d'Architecture Moderne.
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D'Helft, B. and Gérard, A. (1982) ‘Extension CEE: voici l’alternative Josaphat’, *La Ville et l’Habitant*, 82(9), pp. 1-2.

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Eiffage-Axa. (2023) *Het consortium Eiffage-Axa Belgium wint het contract voor de ontwikkeling van de eerste fase van de Josaphat-site, Eiffage Benelux*. Available at: https://eiffagebenelux.be/het-consortium-eiffage-axa-belgium-wint-het-contract-voor-de-ontwikkeling-van-de-eerste-fase-van-de-josaphat-site/ (Accessed: 15 May 2023).

Het Laatste Nieuws (1977) ‘Bewoners van Maalbeekvallei te Etterbeek blijven ongerust’, 23 October, p. 17.

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## DISCUSSANTS

Adolf Sotoca, UPCatalunya

Anne Kockelkorn, UGent

Bénédicte Grosjean, ENSAP / ULille

Brian McGrath, Parsons School of Design, The New School

Bruno de Meulder, KULeuven

Bruno Notteboom, KULeuven

Carola Hein, TU Delft

Chiara Cavalieri, UCLouvain

Denis Delbaere, ENSAP / ULille

Elena Cogato Lanza, EPFLausanne

Els Verbakel, Bezalel Acad. Arts&Design

Geoffrey Grulois, ULBruxelles

Gery Leloutre, ULBruxelles

Guillaume Vanneste, UCLouvain

Hessam Khoarasani, IUAV / EHESS

Isabelle Doucet, Chalmers University of Technology

Ivonne Weichold, LISER Luxembourg

Jeroen Stevens, KULeuven

Kelly Shannon, KULeuven

Kristel Mazy, UМons

Maria Chiara Tosi, IUAVenezia

Mathieu Berger, UCLouvain

Michiel Dehaene, UGent

Nikos Katsikis, TU Delft

Paola Viganò, EPFL / IUAV

Sabine Barles, Université Paris 1

Sébastien Marot, ENSA Paris-Est

Tom Avermaete, ETH Zurich

Tom Broes, UGent

Tommaso Pietropolli, EPFLausanne

Viviana d'Auria, KULeuven

## EDITORS

Chiara Cavalieri

Bénédicte Grosjean

Lucas Lerchs

Maarten Gheysen

Roman Lassalle

Thaïs Delefortrie
## SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

Adolf Sotoca, UPCatalunya

Anne Kockelkorn, UGent

Bénédicte Grosjean, ENSAP / ULille (**co-chair**)

Brian McGrath, Parsons School of Design, The New School

Bruno de Meulder, KULeuven

Bruno Notteboom, KULeuven

Carola Hein, TU Delft

Chiara Cavalieri, UCLouvain (**co-chair**)

Denis Delbaere, ENSAP / ULille

Elena Cogato Lanza, EPFLausanne

Els Verbakel, Bezalel Acad. Arts&Design

Geoffrey Grulois, ULBruxelles

Gery Leloutre, ULBruxelles

Isabelle Doucet, Chalmers University of Technology

Kelly Shannon, KULeuven

Maria Chiara Tosi, IUAVenezia

Mathieu Berger, UCLouvain

Michiel Dehaene, UGent

Nikos Katsikis, TU Delft

Paola Viganò, EPFL / IUAVenezia

Sabine Barles, Université Paris 1

Sébastien Marot, ENSA Paris-Est

Tom Avermaete, ETH Zurich

## ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Bénédicte Grosjean, ENSAP / ULille

Chiara Cavalieri, UCLouvain

Lorraine Feugère, LACTH, ENSAP Lille (**coord.**)

Maarten Gheysen, KULeuven

Gery Leloutre, ULBruxelles

Roman Lassalle, UCLouvain/ENSAP Lille

Lucas Lerchs, UCLouvain

Thaïs Delefortrie, UCLouvain

## CONTACT

mail: UU2023@lille.archi.fr
web: https://www.lille.archi.fr/uu2023/

© 2023, Louvain research institute for Landscape, Architecture, Built environment, UCLouvain
ISBN: 978-2-931069-10-3 [digital edition]
BEYOND METROPOLIZATION

*Exploring new hybrids*

10TH INTERNATIONAL U&U PHD SEMINAR

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École Polytechnique
Supérieure
d'Architecture et de
Paysage de Lille

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Université
de Lille

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UCLouvain

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LAB
Louvain research Institute for Landscape,
Architecture, Built environment

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