See U Brussels
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
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Project Description
See U is the largest temporary occupation in Belgium, that takes place on the site of the former Fritz Toussaint barracks in Ixelles. 45.000m2 completely dedicated to innovation, sustainability and education. See U exists thanks to a community of more than 100 project who drive the site on a daily basis. There are projects from the associative, economic, cultural or educational world. See U is a public place, open on the neighborhood, with a new range of local facilities for its inhabitants.
Geographical Scope
Project Region
Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
EU Programme or fund
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Description of the project
Summary
See U is the largest temporary occupation in Belgium, that takes place on the site of the former Fritz Toussaint barracks in Ixelles. 45.000m2 completely dedicated to innovation, sustainability and education.
See U exists thanks to a community of more than 100 project leaders who drive the site on a daily basis. There are projects from the associative, economic, cultural or educational world. Each project fits into one of the site's 7 themes: Sustainable, Family, Food, Gallery, Lab, Community, Playground.
See U is a public place, open on the neighborhood, with a new range of local facilities for its inhabitants. Thanks to the high variety of projects present on the site, See U takes on the appearance of a new ephemeral district with cultural events, a cinema, a weekly market, dance and yoga classes, a Velodroom, a bike repair, a café-poussette and many other activities for the whole family.
Key objectives for sustainability
The main theme at See U is sustainability, almost all projects who are residents at See U are working around this theme. We try to reuse all we can to be the most circular possible.
We have plenty of projects working around soft mobility, a beekeeper to make our local honey, cooperatives around agriculture, a bio market every Thursday, artists who work with recup and give a second live to already used materials, second hand shop, local and bio flower shop, makers, repair café, bike repair, etc.
We built a wooden Velodroom 4 years ago. As it is not safe any more to bike on it, we asked all residents to help us to unbuild it and to rebuild all kind of furniture with the wood to accommodate de central place of See U.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
See U is located on a historic site, a former barracks. The architecture of the site is authentic and majestic, with the majority of the buildings intact and with the same cachet as at the time. The aesthetics of the site have evolved over the course of the adventure. Each resident has decorated their own space and the common areas have been designed through a process of co-creation. The aim has always been to meet the needs of the site's users.
Key objectives for inclusion
Open call for projects: When See U started, an open call for projects was sent all over Brussels to be the most equal and open possible. The aim was to give a chance to all projects. We analyzed all the applications to be sure that they coincide with the values of See U.
Create a community: Beside managing and programming the place, one of the biggest missions of See U was to involve the neighbourhood and to create a community. See U created a community of more than 100 projects who drive the site on a daily basis. There are projects from the associative, economic, cultural or educational world. The magic at See U was to observe all the collaborations that were created between the different projects.
Involve the neighborhood: To involve the neighborhood, See U created a neighborhood collective, Meet U. We organize monthly meetings with them and a lot of activities are created for and by the neighbors. A room is also available for the neighbors for their meetings or any other events. It is important for us to respond to their needs and to make them work with us on the program.
Affordable & inclusion: The access at See U for the public is free, open for everyone and most of the events are also free. The few events where we asked for a participation are always with a fair price.
Co-creation & co-conception: All what happens at See U is the result of a co-creation. The program is co created with external partners, with the residents or the neighbors. The accommodations of the outside public space is also the result of a co-creation between neighbors and residents. Imagine by the neighbors and created by the residents.
A lot of events are also the results of a co-conception between residents, neighbors, See U or external partners: U See Festival, Roller Together, Quartier en feest, Tous Fritz Festival etc.
Results in relation to category
The project started in June 2019 and the first edition ended in June 2021 with more than 60.000 visitors each year and more than 300 events. See U is considered as the largest temporary occupation of Belgium with more than 100 projects and a lot of co-creation between all these projects.
How Citizens benefit
Everything that happens at See U is a co creation with all the residents of See U. We want to enable visitors to take ownership of the public space. We involve the neighborhood in the programmation of the summer edition. There are weekly meetings with the neighbors to respond to their needs and to implement common projects with them: a collective vegetable garden with workshops, Tous Fritz Festival, … We also create a lot of partnerships with the municipality of Ixelles and the Brussels Region.
The aim is also to open the doors of this spectacular historical site that was previously closed to the public and making it accessible to the neighborhood and more widely to visitors through animation, programming and the use of spaces for sustainable, solidarity and artistic projects and the support of neighborhood initiatives.
All these co-creation helped us to work with a broader vision and to respond to the needs of everyone. Working with different partners gives you the possibility to include different targets and to reach an audience from different horizons. We also cherish the fact that every project can be complementary to another in terms of skills, contacts or knowledge.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
See U is a temporary occupation on a site of 45 000 m2 with more than 100 projects from the associative, economic, cultural or educational world reunited on the same site. It is a place for experimentations open to everyone.
Learning transferred to other parties
See U is one of the projects of pali pali. Pali pali is now managing 2 other temporary occupations and continuously transfer his knowledge to other projects to do the same. We organize discussion tables to share the knowledge and to share on common projects.
