Lecture by Benoit Moritz

Benoit Moritz, architect and urbanist of MSA Group, and also a teacher at La Cambre and in the School of Urban Studies in Brussels, explainded to the groups the two big projects his team was encharged of: the Masterplan for the European Community District and the Regeneration Plan for the “Tour und Taxis” area.
In both projects, the adopted strategy was similar, since it dealt with a problem of identity of the neighbourhood.

The European Community District is “the” address of Brussels’ global evolution scheme.
Nowadays the area can hardly been considered as the symbol of the European Union, of the construction of Europe, there’s no physical translation representing the dynamics of finding Europe’s identity.
The project was commisioned, through a competition, by the Office of the Prime Minister of Belgium and it will be paid by private investors.
The main problem of approaching the European Community District is that there is a multiplicity of actors playing at the same time: political actors, like the Municipality, the Federal States of Belgium authorities and, of corse, the European Institutions (five different institutions), plus the inhabitants. Their suggestion was to first of all begin an active dialogue among all these actors.
Characteristics of this area: good central position, you can build here as many offices as you want. Kind of « monopoly ». Investors know there will always be new demand for office spaces, because Europe is growing day after day.
Neverthanless, there are lots of empty offices buildings in Europe. Lack of humanity.
The morphological aspect of the area was very much influenced by the security problem. European Institution tend not to choose multifunctional areas. This assembly of mono functional spaces makes the European District look like a peripherical area even if it’s position is very central. The European Parliament is a huge building of almost half a million sqm. 1.500.000 sqm of european offices were built in 2005.
The European Parliament is built on a kind of hill, facing another very important building, commissioned by the belgian Government (really a bad piece of architecture, result of the “altogether work” of 25 arch. Studios).
The proposal of MSA Group was to concentrate on the valley between the two big buildings, which is at the moment occupied by a parking place, and make it the new symbol of the Eu Community. The project will be finished by 2020.
The aim is to create a new identity, a global concept that can radically change the image of the European quarter, express its mixity. This operation will begin in 2008, when we will have the first anniversary of the “Traité de Rome”.
This is a pretext for Brussels to have new infrastructures. Buildings that have to be a shared place.
Every european citizen can go in (usually you can get in an Eu Community building only if you’re invited). New public spaces, urban life, mixity, mobility, security and facilities for the local inhabitants are keywords. Not only to create new spaces, but also to enhance the existing ones (for example, using the central station stairs to connect the different levels of the city of Brussels, giving a service to the inhabitants but also to tourists, workers, …).
The identity of the place is not only linked to buildings but also on how people used the streets. What they proposed to underline the anniversary and the new buildings construction creating special events, to create a sense of participation among the inhabitants.

The project for the “Tour und Taxis” neighbourhood: it’s a very poor area in the north of Brussels, a place of migration fluxes. They had a workshop with the local inhabitants + spoke with the President of the European community, to make him aware of what’s happening in the city he lives and work in.
“Tour und Taxis” neighbourhood: 12.630 inhabitants.
The aim was to develop several tools to make some concept understandable by the inhabitants.
This area looks like an isle because it’s sourrounded by infrastructures, not working infrastructures, actually. 1/3 of the inhab. are under 18. There’s a constant incombe of new inhabitants. And an increasing family members number.
They concentrated on communication tools, which should be friendly to the local inhabitants.
They developed a range of symbols, which were then applied on posters, representing common concepts that the population could share. The aim was, again, to create an identity for the neighbourhood.
They also proposed to introduce three new actqivities in the area: a civic centre, a business centre for the economical development of the area and social programmes for the inhabitants associations.

Common principles of intervenction: 1.the local approach is as important as the global approach, 2.dealing with the local inhabitants is as important as dealing with the government, 3.Europe democracy principles are linked to the development of urban cities.