Process of reappropriation and transformation of the public space carried out with the children of the Ulenspiegel school in St-Gilles, in the form of workshops in situ, animations and participative building sites, with the main objectives of bringing more safety, nature and playfulness to the surroundings of their school, generating a strong feeling of belonging to their neighbourhood, of ownership and pride among the children.
Local
Belgium
°Municipality of St-Gilles
°Brussels Region (Innoviris and Brussels Mobility)
Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
Yes
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Less béton asbl Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Laetitia Last name of representative: Cloostermans Gender: Female Nationality: Belgium Function: Coordinator Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: André Hennebicq street 43 Town: Brussels Postal code: 1060 Country: Belgium Direct Tel:+32 486 21 37 64 E-mail:laetitia.cloostermans@lessbeton.be Website:http://www.lessbeton.be/
The project with the Ulenspiegel school started at the beginning of 2021 as part of a 'co-create' project by Innoviris, with two other associations: Heroes for zero and La cité des jeunes.
We co-facilitated several workshops with a class, in order to raise awareness of the negative effects of concrete and of road safety, and to imagine how to make the pedestrian crossing safer while bringing in more nature.
With the help of the children, we took measurements, made plans, models, etc. and finally reached a consensus: the creation of a planted parklet on two parking spaces below the pedestrian crossing, integrating a bench and a book box, and on the other side of the street, planting boxes.
As the project is evolving and the children still have other desires and dreams, we wanted to renew the partnership of the three associations in order to continue to accompany the children in the conception and realisation of their aspirations and dreams while giving them the opportunity to be actors of this change.
Thus, in 2022, thanks to the support of Brussels Mobility and the Commune of St-Gilles, we had the opportunity to go one step further with the participatory demineralisation of the areas adjacent to the pedestrian crossing, which we then planted (approximately 20m2).
The next steps for 2023 are the construction of a playground with tree trunks in the Heroes' square next to the school and the installation of a canopy over the parklet with rainwater collection (illustration of the water cycle).
The quality of this project lies in the fact that it brings together three actors involved in the issue of public space, who are trying to improve it by tackling three different but complementary and mutually enriching themes: ecology (via demineralisation and planting work), road safety (making the infrastructure safe), and social cohesion ('empowerment' of young people via carpentry work)
Public space as a common good
Road safety - Mobility
Ecology
Social cohesion
Empowerment
Our participatory demineralisation and planting project is a simple and sustainable action, as it has multiple and complementary effects.
Indeed, removing concrete in order to recreate an open and living soil promotes well-being for all (humans and non-humans), better health and quality of life, more autonomy (access to land to cultivate) and helps fight against the effects of climate change and the collapse of biodiversity. Also, living soil captures carbon and absorbs rainwater (as opposed to compacted, 'dead' soil).
Furthermore, this project is particularly sustainable because whatever has been cleared will remain so (with all the ecosystem benefits) and even if plants are uprooted/grassed, the area can be spontaneously and continuously recolonised by plants.
Our work sites are carried out as much as possible in a 'low tech' way, i.e. with manual tools, requiring no energy input other than that of man.
We also favour active travel. Most of the material needed for the work sites as well as the plants are transported by cargo bike.
For each of our projects we apply the principles of the circular economy: local and eco-responsible suppliers and partners, use of recycled materials, rental of certain tools, locally produced and indigenous or melliferous plants (from a sustainable nursery) etc. For example, the large stones that currently surround this future playground will be partly replaced by wooden trunks from a regional project called 'Carbon', a project that intends to experiment with recirculation techniques for all green waste flows (leaves, lawns, branches, large wood) within four municipal administrations and one regional administration (Brussels Mobility) of the Brussels Region.
Wood, a sustainable material par excellence, is the main theme of our project, as it is also a pretext for carpentry work with children.
Our objective in this project is clearly to improve the quality of public space through a series of high quality physical interventions that are aesthetic, educational, useful for the common good and correspond to the wishes and dreams of children.
We pay particular attention to the materials used, the finishes and the consistency of language between the different interventions. For example, we will use a common colour code for the different interventions showing the virtuous cycles of water, we will create gutters and downpipes in bamboo, which is simpler to implement by the children, less expensive than the different metals traditionally used in Europe, more aesthetic than plastic, but frequently used in certain Asian countries in particular.
However, we have to deal with a certain number of constraints linked to the fact that these interventions take place in the public space: standards, police approval, fire brigade approval, traffic, safety etc.
In spite of this, we find a consensus that satisfies everyone and gives the children a real sense of pride.
During the workcamps, the children expressed a lot of joy, excitement, curiosity and wonder, especially in the fact that they were involved in concrete projects that made sense for them.
During some of our activities, we use cards that allow the children to express their feelings on a regular basis, thus reconnecting with what is going on inside them and allowing us to gauge their state of mind and how it is evolving.
In addition to the children, the headmistress, the teachers, the alderwoman in charge and the people in charge of the municipal services are very happy and satisfied with the process and the results obtained so far. This is due in particular to a collaborative approach, taking into account the realities of each person and to an experimental approach that is simple and easily adaptable.
Our proposal goes beyond traditional methods of participation which often do not attract a representative public of the areas concerned by a project.
Certain audiences, financially less well off, or less trained, younger or older, are often less mobilised.
How then can the common interest be defined and guaranteed in spontaneous transformation projects? Here we rely on tactical urbanism, a mode of action in situ, to involve in the project inhabitants who are sometimes put off or do not have access to traditional methods of participation. In particular for this project, by working in the vicinity of and with a school, the pupils of which are mainly local children living in the adjacent social housing.
Moreover, the workcamps taking place in public space, which is by definition open and accessible to all, attract and include the inhabitants, passers-by, shopkeepers and young people from the neighbourhood, some of whom come to help out. These workcamps also allow these different actors to meet with the politicians and municipal agents present and active during the workcamps.
The fact that we address children in the school itself also allows us to reach and sometimes even meet certain parents, who are sometimes left out or not very involved in the evolution of their living space.
Furthermore, the work carried out with the children, in close collaboration with their teacher, ensures that no one is excluded and that everyone is given the opportunity to speak, while reflecting on complex challenges such as urbanisation, natural resource management, climate change, etc. All the children participate in the decision-making process and have access to a small symbolic portion of their neighbourhood that used to be reserved for cars. They discover the resources of these spaces, reflect on what they want to see happen there and what kind of society they want to create.
Finally, the various participants are of different nationalities, sexe, ages and religions.
We make sure that children are active and involved in the whole process, from the observation/reflection phase, to the design phase, to the physical implementation.
We aim at an inner transformation of the children (with a view to a societal transformation), create 'Proust's madeleiness' and aim at equipping the children and putting them in a position to act materially on their everyday space. This also implies a shift in their perspective on this space: from an impersonal public space, which belongs to no one, to a collective public space, common to all.
These transformations aim to encourage these future adult citizens to take initiatives in their public space, but also to take care of it. This implies, in particular, giving them the tools to better understand institutional decision-making procedures, with the aim of better understanding how they can be actors in the public space but also in their own lives.
Hence the project to have them visit the municipality, with a meeting with the mayor and aldermen, so that they can better understand the levels of power, and what their room of manoeuvre is as future citizens. They went there with a letter written together in class, containing a series of requests and demands to improve their school environment, this time through communal actions: repairing the flashing sign indicating the speed of cars in the vicinity of the school, colouring the pedestrian crossing to make it more visible, etc. We are also making sure that these changes are implemented.
At the regional level: funding of the project by Brussels Mobility. Without their trust and this funding, our initial project, which was carried out with very limited resources, would not have developed into what it has become and what it will become in a few months.
At the municipal level: no financial support is possible, as the municipality of St-Gilles has few resources. However, the first alderman of St-Gilles (Mobility, Urbanism, Roads, Public Spaces, Green Spaces and Equal Opportunities and Women's Rights) as well as the alderman of Education (who has since become mayor) have supported the initiative since its inception. The agreements in principle necessary to obtain financing have been reached and the project is being defended by them at the college as it progresses.
The municipal services are also heavily involved in the project: the teams from the road, green space and education departments, as well as their managers, follow the project with us. This includes, for example, consultation meetings in situ to validate the projects or logistical and physical assistance during the works or events. Their experience and knowledge of the problems linked to public space is really essential to the smooth running of the project.
The Ulenspiegel school is of course the central stakeholder in the project. The headmistress of the school is particularly open and motivated by the project. Finally, a teacher agreed to take part from the beginning, and now two classes have been involved in the project. Thanks to this, the whole teaching team supports the project: other teachers, educators, caretakers, etc. The fact that this project is co-constructed with the children really allows for great creativity and an emulsion in the neighbourhood. The project is thus particularly respected.
This co-design work with these different levels of perception and decision is a source of great richness but requires good coordination and consultation.
First of all, there are three partner associations, each with its own area of expertise: 'Heroes for Zero' for questions concerning mobility, road safety and the sharing of public space, 'La cité des jeunes' brings its local knowledge of the district and its inhabitants and follows closely the questions of social cohesion and the socio-cultural issues of the commune of St-Gilles, and Less béton works on the questions of the resilient city, connected to the cycles of life and to nature.
From the outset, it appeared to us that these different areas had to be worked on together and not in opposition to each other, if we wanted to act in a coherent and impactful way on the public space.
But these themes can only be worked on together if there is a 'public' (in this case the school and the children) and a field of experimentation (in this case the public space, under the responsibility of the municipality). Thanks to this work with the school, the pedagogical dimension of our actions has been accentuated while at the same time proposing developments that are viable, because they are supervised by the municipality, which is a specialist in land use planning and which will take over the management of the spaces created when we leave. The municipality considers our interventions as a form of 'test' of certain developments that they had not yet attempted, such as, for example, the recovery of part of the rainwater from the road in the planting pits via flush borders.
It is therefore necessary to move forward by stages and successive feedbacks, whether from the children and their teacher, the headmistress or the municipal officials, and to be ready to modify our plans and intervention schedules.
This requires good communication throughout the project and, above all, openness and goodwill.
Through this project, we apply one of the leitmotivs of tactical urbanism: the possibility for every citizen to act materially on his or her environment without waiting for the authorities to respond to their aspirations.
This possibility is usually limited when it comes to changing the design of public space, which is managed by the public authorities. Here, we have not only obtained the agreement of the municipality and the services in charge, but also the support of a school, a class, a neighbourhood.
With this project, we propose a systemic vision combining citizen empowerment (internal and societal transformation), the transformation of the institutional framework and the physical transformation of the space.
This project is also intended to have a positive influence on the other projects underway in the vicinity of the school, which benefits from both a sustainable neighbourhood contract and a school contract. Our project allows us to bring together different local actors - the municipality's services, the school, local associations and residents - to concretise the desire to improve public space according to an innovative model of participative management.
It is intended above all to be inspirational for future developments, and therefore temporary and flexible.
Working on the issue of road safety, social cohesion and nature around schools, with schools and the children who attend them, is clearly a concept that should and could be transferred to the level of each school.
Acting in situ, in low tech mode, is affordable by all with some safety precautions and good organisation.
Addressing several themes at the same time (several associations), which complement each other and allow links to be made, is also easily replicable. As is the systematic involvement of an association present in the project area. This has the advantage of knowing the socio-economic reality, the population and the general or specific context. Finally, the various educational means and materials can be replicated: activities, workshops, visits, workcamps, etc.
We currently have a project, based on what has been done here, to support schools in the Brussels region in setting up an outdoor school to raise awareness of climate issues and biodiversity loss. Some of the same themes would be used again: water cycles, soil issues and ecology. The involvement of the young people, their teachers and possibly their parents would take the form of demineralisation and plantation workcamps planned with these actors.
The same methodological tools would be used. The municipality would again be involved.
Our approach is practical, concrete, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary.
With this project, we initiate a 'school from outside', in an informal way. We move from the inside to the outside and vice versa, thus reducing the rupture between these two environments of the children's life (more fluid articulation between the two).
Also, this exterior is concretely transformed so that it is more adapted to the scale and to the needs and desires of the children, but also to the current challenges (mobility, climate change and collapse of biodiversity).
This allows us to apprehend :
-The unexpected, continuous renewal of sources of discovery. The capacity of children to be available to the unusual is encouraged.
-Complexity: we stimulate their sense of observation in a known environment (their neighbourhood), which provides an anchor for approaching the state of the world and a systemic vision
We therefore tackle many cross-cutting and complex themes in a practical and playful way. This allows the children to make the links between phenomena, like a thread that is pulled to move from one subject to another.
In the long run, the outdoor school also contributes to greater equality between children.
Quality public space is essential for our society on several levels. Firstly, for the well-being of people - especially those who do not have access to a nearby garden or green space - but also for other living species (biodiversity). The public space also plays an important democratic role: its free access and accessibility make it one of the last places where people can mix, where one can meet people outside one's own circle (other social class, nationality, social circle...). Working on public space forces us to think very concretely about the question of the common good (what kind of public space do we want?
What needs should be prioritised?) Finally, it plays the role of "glue" in the formation of a collective neighbourhood identity. A neighbourhood is often defined by its emblematic public squares
However, these important qualities of public space are in the process of being degraded by five factors:
1) the privatisation of public space
2) the dynamics of segregation (gentrification, insecurity)
3) the domination of car mobility needs (to the detriment of the living environment)
4) the over-concretion of land (to the detriment of life and biodiversity)
5) the monopoly of the production and management of public space by the public authorities via the abundance of technical and safety standards limiting the scope for action by citizens.
The result is a public space that is increasingly unsuited to the needs of citizens and
ecosystems. In the long term and in connection with climate change, a dysfunctional public space threatens the sustainability and well-being of life in the city (heat islands, lack of shade, loss of habitat, etc.), which would encourage the abandonment of public space by citizens, thus accelerating the disintegration of the social body (atomisation of social links). It is therefore necessary to transform the public space, with the citizens. This is what our project aims to highlight and put into practice.
Achieved :
-Participatory co-design (2021)
Proposed intervention on a very small area: the spaces on both sides of the pedestrian crossing in front of the main entrance of the school.
Question asked to the children: How can we best redesign it so that it meets the needs of the users and improves their environment?
We therefore organised some preliminary workshops with the children in situ, so that they could better understand the issues of the future development. Then, the children first made drawings and then models, which they each presented to the rest of the class and voted for their favourite designs. We organised an exhibition in the school. Their proposed model was translated into a plan for the construction of a parklet and planting trays on either side of the pedestrian crossing.
-Implementation phase (2022)
In view of the demineralisation and vegetation work, we organised an animation on the water cycle, so that the children could understand the importance of demineralising our soils.
They also watched an educational video produced by Less béton, summarising the effects of a concrete floor versus a living floor. They also participated in an animation on road safety/Good move
Finally, they actively participated in the different phases of the demineralisation and planting worksite during 3 days.
Recently, the children participated in a visualisation workshop : How could the street be cleared for more encounters, greenery, games, cycling, walking, etc.?
To be carried out:
The children will have the opportunity to visit the commune and its leaders to submit their applications
In March, in the square next to the school, a playground will be built with the children, at the foot of two trees. We will take advantage of this to provide them with good soil and to carry out new planting.
We will end the school year by co-building a 'canopy' to partially cover the parklet and illustrate the virtuous cycle of water, concluding the experience.
We propose experimental and informal learning: by becoming agents of change, citizens acquire knowledge on climate and urban resilience issues (water cycle, soil demineralisation, active mobility, pollution...) and test new methods to build in situ a collective vision for the neighbourhood. This knowledge (how to define the common good among citizens) is vital at a time when citizen participation processes often struggle to build political consensus.
Above all, we create links with people, other living beings and buildings, which generates a feeling of attachment and new values; we live in a place rather than simply residing there, which makes us want to take care of our environment (because I helped shape it), which creates a commitment to the neighbourhood, which ultimately allows us to make a more global commitment (to causes).
With the municipality, which imposed the installation of raised curbs along the two planting pits, we thought about collecting some of the road water in this area, which is subject to flooding. This is now a test area for the municipality that could be replicated in the future to collect rainwater more sustainably than in downspouts to the sewers. We also took care to explain to the children involved and to the different stakeholders the reason for these implementations.
