New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Project category

Identify the award category for which this project is being submitted
Prioritising the places and people that need it the most

Email user
olivier@escaut.org

Basic information
Project title
GRANDE HALLE

Full Project Title
GRANDE HALLE - Local Contract Petite Senne

Please provide a short, catchy description of your project to be used in communication towards the public.
Development of a public space in the interior of an urban block, improving the living conditions in the Heyvaert district, by creating links between the neighboring streets and the canal. This partially covered space will allow the organization of creative, cultural, sports or festive activities. It will be reserved for pedestrians and cyclists in order to improve the local soft mobility network. The Quai de l'Industrie will be developed into a meeting area.

What was the geographical scope of your project?
Regional

Where was your project implemented?
Member State(s) and Western Balkans
Belgium

If relevant, insert names of region(s)/municipality(ies) involved
Brussels Region - Molenbeek District

Does your project address mainly urban or rural issues?
Mainly urban

Does your project refer to a physical transformation of the built environment or other types of transformations (hard or soft investments)?
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)

Has your project benefited from EU programmes and/or funds?
Yes

Which fund(s)?
ERDF : European Regional Development Fund

Here you can provide more details about the name of the specific programme, strand/action line as relevant, and the year
Programme 2014 - 2020
Brussels operational program : "Target 2020: Investments for growth and jobs!"

Has your project won an EU prize with a monetary value awarded?
No

Is your project fully completed
Yes

Please indicate a date (mm/yy)
2022-12-30

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?
As an individual in partnership with other persons
Please provide the contact details for the project promoter (the individual or representative of the organisation authorised to represent the project).
- First name: Olivier
  Last name: Bastin
  Gender: Male
  Nationality: Belgium
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Rue de L'Escaut 60
  Town: Molenbeek Saint Jean
  Postal code: 1080
  Country: Belgium
  Direct Tel: +32475924983
  E-mail: olivier@escaut.org
  Website: https://escaut.org/
Social Media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
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In case my project is selected as a finalist of the NEB Prizes 2023, I agree to share the name (individual and/or organisation’s), email address, website and social media accounts indicated above with other NEB Prizes finalists. I also agree to publish the name (individual and/or organisation’s), website and social media accounts indicated above next to the public description of my project in the channels of the European Commission.
Yes

How did you hear about the New European Bauhaus Prizes?
New European Bauhaus or European Commission websites

Description of the project
Please provide a summary of your project.
Development of a public space in the interior of an urban block, improving the living conditions in the Heyvaert district, by creating links between the neighboring streets and the canal. This partially covered space will allow the organization of creative, cultural, sports or festive activities. It will be reserved for pedestrians and cyclists in order to improve the local soft mobility network. The Quai de l'Industrie between Rue de Gosselies and Rue de Liverpool will be developed into a meeting space and a link with the canal.
Construction of a crèche for 72 children, with large interior and exterior spaces, welcoming for both children and adults, as well as vegetated terraces in extension with the landscape developed in the heart of the block.
Thanks to a participation process, the inhabitants, the associations, the Commune and the Region were closely associated through the different stages of the design, from the first sketches to the urban permit. This process even continued during the construction phase.
The project generates other projects planned within the framework of the "Petite Senne" SDC:
- Operation 1.C: creation of a creative business incubator and housing similar to social housing - intergenerational housing
- Operation 1.B: creation of a circus school "Circus Zonder Handen
- Operation 1.F1: Creation of a private housing building.
Great attention is dedicated to the reuse of rainwater from the roofs, which will be used for the maintenance of public spaces and plantations, and whose overflow will be directly discharged into the canal, reinforcing the landscape link with it. Runoff water will be infiltrated into the soil to regenerate the aquifer.

Please indicate the main themes of your project with 5 key words.
Common

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Intergenerational

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Productive

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Education

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Water

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of sustainability and how these have been met. Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context.
First time to use the canal as sustainable support for social, cultural and community identification
Rainwater is set on display as pedagogical support for sensibilisation of all generations, cultures and communities in terms of taking care of water as a resource.
The public space is generator of taking care behaviors: care of inhabitants as well as nature (trees, vegetations and microbiological live)

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience for people (through design, positive emotions and cultural benefits) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context.
Transforming a lost industrial patrimonium into a welcoming and secured covered public space. The elegance of the existing structure has been reinforced by contrast through new housings and facilities constructions proposing material dialog with the existing steel structure.

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of inclusion (ranging from accessibility and affordability for all to inclusive governing systems, design for all principles or new societal models) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context.
Priority is given to pedestrian and bicycle mobility in an area where car is still the queen.
The open public space is accessible to all users as well as the housings and facilities constructions.
The nursery represents the reception of young children, while the intergenerational housing invites the cohabitation of various social classes and age groups

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the project and civil society have been involved in the project and what has been the impact of this involvement on the project
The local district contract is an urban renewal program including participations processes from the programmation phase, up to its realization.
Several ateliers, district visits, interviews and workshops with inhabitants have been set up with the help of local structures and organizations already involved in the everyday life of the habitants as well as the local working class.
During the realization process, this social dynamic was reinforced by organizing ateliers and visits for kids attending to a local school.
The contractor played the game of sensibilisating this young public to the constrains and potentialities of a construction process.

Please explain how different stakeholders at various levels (local, regional, national, European) were engaged in the design and implementation of the project. Please highlight what the added value of their engagement was.
The Brussels local district contract is an urban renewal program including the European, Regional and local district levels.
The 30 years methodology is based on a close rythm of moments on every step of the process, from the programmation to its realization.
The EFRO team is stimulating all these steps, proposing moments of communication on local, regional and international level.
The local district team is a very well trained team carrying all decisive moments in close collaboration with the author teams, and the habitants.

Please explain which disciplines and/ or knowledge fields were reflected in the design and implementation of your project. Please explain how representatives of these different fields interacted with each other, and what the added value of this process was.
The restoration of an existing patrimonial industrial steel structure imposed a first step feasability study by structure ingeneers followed by an experimented approach by a patrimonium ingeneer;
The sustainable approach of rainwater use and circulation introduced special technologies ingeneers to maximise the use of rainwater according to ground and covering surfaces possibilities.
Ground pollution issues imposed Brussels Environment accredited ingeneers.
Last but not least, an artist intervention called "rainwater fountain" introduced an artists collective already involved in social and artistic interventions with the habitants of this district.

Please give information on the results, outcomes and impacts achieved by your project in relation to the category you apply for. This includes also benefits from the project for direct and indirect beneficiaries
The 9 intergenerational social housings are occupied as well as the 3 ateliers spaces on the ground floor.
The nursary will open its doors on september when the public space and the new vegetations will have taken their roots.
A Circus School will comme later in one of the existing factory buildings and will be connected to the covered public space.
The artistic "rainwater fountain" has been developped through a participation process to reinforce the appropriation and indentification process.
The rainwater use, pouring it into the ground or keeping it for pedagocical and technical uses, is a provocative issue forcing public and authorities to live with rainwater and not just using it.

Please provide documents showing the results, outcomes and impacts of your project
PDF
PDF
- pdf-1-22433.pdf
Please highlight the innovative character of the project, when compared to mainstream actions in the field of the project
Linking social issues and physical propositions enhance the relations between nature and urban conditions in a postindustrial context.
This process opens the door for a pedagogical approach reinforcing the quality of the environment based on the respect by and for all users.

Please describe the methodology or approach used in your project.
The local district contract is based on participation processes taking care of every steps of the project conception and realization.
Every stakeolders, from local authorities to the contractors, are sensibilized to the social and environmental issues of the projects.
Technical resistances and difficulties are overcrossed by the need of quality in every steps and final results.

Please describe which elements of your project could be replicated or transferred to other places, groups of beneficiaries and context. This may involve for example aspects of the methodology, technology, processes, products, learnings etc.
The participation process including all actors becomes a natural attitude nourishing all decisions and solutions.
Leaning on the existing patrimonium becomes a strenght including the short term of this transformation process into the larger historical meaning of the place.

Please explain what kind of global challenges the project addresses by providing local solutions
Transforming a lost postindustrial place into a living natural and social place offers the roots for housings, productive, leisures and facilities activities.
This acupunctural type of intervention means to have effects on an environment larger than the limited area of the project.
Please attach at least 6 high resolution images (or other types of visual representations, if images are not possible) to your application.
If you would like to upload additional documentation, please upload or write below
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By submitting your application you confirm that you are the copyright owner of the images provided and that they can be used by the European Commission for the purposes of promoting the New European Bauhaus on all platforms (websites, print, social media and other).
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that you are not in in one or more of the exclusion situations foreseen under Article 136 of the Financial Regulation.
Yes

By submitting this application, I declare that I am not related to the entities subject to EU restricted measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and subject to Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)1, and entities covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05), which are not eligible to participate in any capacity.
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that you assume sole liability in the event of a claim relating to the activities carried out in the framework of the contest, that the proposed project has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Prizes in any other category or strand and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.
Yes

By submitting your application, you guarantee that you are the author or have the rights to proceed with the application and to authorise the use of the project and that you have obtained any necessary consents, licenses or assignments from third parties and included copyright notices when necessary.
Yes

By submitting your application, you understand that all the applications that meet the eligibility requirements will be shared for the purposes of the selection processes, and notably published on the secured platform prizes.new-european-bauhaus.eu and for the purposes of the promotion of these on the New European Bauhaus website and/or other European Commission communication channels. In this sense, the applications would be widely available. Applicants should ensure that they present their projects, in such a way that they could be shared without giving rise to intellectual property related concerns. If your submission is selected as one of the finalists, it will additionally be shared for the purpose of the public vote that will take place. The European Union is granted a licence to use and share your application with the general public and the official external experts for the purposes of the selection process, including the voting. The European Union has the right to use the images and visual materials and the description provided in the application for communication purposes related to the contest and beyond. Rights granted comprise the right to store, reproduce, display, publish and communicate or distribute copies in electronic or digital format, including, but not only, through the internet. Unless you have disclosed your name, the European Commission has no obligation to share your name when using or disseminating your contribution to the public. The European Union cannot be held responsible in case any submitted project, is found to infringe third party’s rights. The European Union shall be neither responsible for the use that third parties may do of the applications or related content.
Yes

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you read and understand that the ‘Guide to Applicants’ of the NEB Prizes 2023, available online in the website of the NEB Prizes 2023, is an integral part of this application form and that it must therefore be observed when completing and submitting your application.
Yes