STW0002 - BRUSSEL - Jonction
design: masterplan for a new park and atelier space
type: urbanism
client: Brussels
designteam: Studio Thomas Willemse in collaboration with Metapolis (Cristian Panaité, Mircea Munteanu, Pierre Eyben, Chloé Rouzerol)
mobility: Tractebel
time: 2015
The fragmentation is countered by creating one lawn.
The activities and circulation are pushed to the sides and under the railtracks.
A new open space provides endless opportunities.
The zone of the masterplan Jonction has multiple qualities, but is especially an exceptional open space in the compact urban fabric of the Marollen: an urban void.
In her current fragmented condition this site seems unfinished. The space is situated between two scales of public space: the size is smaller than a park, but larger than a city square. It has its own richness, especially because it is the only green open space in a neighbourhood with a very high density. There is a potential to transformed it into a crucial public space that connects the city and the neighbourhood. The central ideas that guide the masterplan are:
- A structured open space: the open space is reinforced by clearing it entirely,
- An amplified geography: reinforcing nature, topography, the existing morphology and the character of the site in order to read and discover the layers that make up the landscape,
- A new start: introduction of a new element on the site. The element reorganises and charges the place with activities. It polarises the open space.
- Diversity of different times: the masterplan is thought from different uses of public space at different times: week/weekend, day/evening, summer/winter. Programming and amenities can evolve to create an attractive and dynamic place throughout the year.
The global principle of the proposed plan is to puzzle the neighbourhood around Jonction again in the urban dynamic of the pentagon, to open and revalue its public space, to reorganise the gate of the neighbourhood and its connections between the existing and emerging subcentra, to create the required conditions to invite emerging functions of the urban evolution.