A COMMON VISION FOR THE BRUSSELS METROPOLITAN CITY CENTRE BEYOND THE PENTAGON

This article proposes an open vision for the Brussels metropolitan city centre. It serves as a framework for a working method for developing design initiatives that are project-oriented and focus on testing, evaluating, adapting and implementing such a vision at different scales in the Brussels extended metropolitan centre. It summarizes the results of the international master class ‘Zoom in | Zoom out – Brussels hypercentre: from pedestrian area to urban project’ organized by the BSI-BCO and perspective.brussels in January and February 2018. The authors propose a detailed interpretation of the metropolitan centre as a hypercentre, based on an ongoing interdisciplinary research process within the BSI – BCO. They also present the working method research-by-design and the results of the project-based research conducted by the participants. This creates a more global vision for the metropolitan centre, based on three strategic guidelines: 1) expanding the perimeter with the circle-shaped metro-loop (line 2), the Brussels Canal Charleroi-Antwerp and the central railway stations; 2) structuring the metropolitan centre around a network of public spaces that are beneficial for soft mobility and ecological system services; 3) developing support programs for a cosmopolitan urban culture. The chapter illustrates possible sustainable scenarios for the spatial and programmatic structuring of the future metropolitan centre, of which the pedestrian zone will be a part