New Espérance for Seraing: nature and artifice reorienting the future

Seraing, that expanded in the 20th century because of steel and coke industries, reveals today critical aspects in terms of urban decline, due to the ongoing deindustrialization process. This project aims at defining strategies and scenaries for the urban regeneration. Starting from the investigation of the territory at urban scale, lines of intervention on three territorial systems were elaborated: mobility, river waterfront, green areas. Then, the thesis focuses on an industrial site in Seraign: “Espérance–Longdoz”. The improvement strategy is based on a “de-constructive” analysis, allowing to identify the materials and objects composing the steel plant site. The project develops through the “re-composition” of the analysed elements by giving them new uses and meanings: artificial and natural elements become complementary instruments to recover the site. The regeneration project is an evolving process showing some hypothetical scenaries at different stages. The first scenary is about accessibility: the new “passerelle de l’Espérance”, extending from the blast furnace to the northern part of the town, becomes a public footbridge. While crossing it, one discovers the landscape variety and its progressive change. The intermediate scenary contemplates experimentation: some zones are left to the spontaneous vegetal recolonization, other zones become objects of study with phytoremediation. The long term scenary considers: the waterfront renovation, the realization of two parks and the reuse of the industrial structures