Molenwest Square
Basic information
Project Title
Category
Project Description
Blowing life into the West Station! Molenbeek could not wait... before big urban transformations along former railway tracks, local and regional authorities and citizen organizations came together to create a temporary, reusable and portable new public space : Molenwest Square ! The site, built in a few months and made with arches and reusable sea containers, gives shelter for social initiatives as well as a place to meet, play, talk and create.
Geographical Scope
Project Region
Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
EU Programme or fund
Which funds
Description of the project
Summary
Molenbeek-Saint-Jean is one of the 19 municipalities composing the Brussels Capital Region. This former industrial center is now of one the poorest and most densely populated area of Brussels. But it's also a vibrant municipality with many people wanting to change the image of the place they live in.
A lot of urban projects are planned in order to make Molenbeek more attractive and pleasant. In the West Station especially, but the timing of urban planning is often quite long and this neighbourhood really lacked a qualitative public space. Therefore, the municipality of Molenbeek, the Brussels Capital Region and several local associations came together to create a new, easy-to-build and reusable public space : Molenwest Square.
Imagined by 1010 Architecture and built in place of a concrete industrial wasteland, Molenwest Square is made of former sea contenairs, transformed into premises, linked together with big blue arches. It offers a place for the inhabitants and the associations : from a discussion group of mums to a fablab but also cycling lessons, everyone is welcome in Molenwest Square.
Some people come only to enjoy a quiet place to play near the vegetable garden, others join a well organized group to create a new radio. Everything is possible !
The site was financed by Brussels Capital Region and is now managed by the municipality in coordination with a core of local associations. A not always easy balance between different actors but it works !
Key objectives for sustainability
Molenwest square achieves sustainable goals from at least 4 perspectives :
Social
- Molenwest Square accommodates a number of existing organisations that organise activities for children and adolescents, but do not have their own space. Molenwest Square offers them the chance to build up a stable local operation, enabling them to make a long-term commitment to the neighbourhood and the people that inhabit it.
- Due to the nature of the organisations, the program focuses primarily on disadvantaged groups that are often unheard : young children, mothers, teenagers with precarious backgrounds. The operation of the organisations focuses on supervised activities, which allows for a bond to be built between the supervisors and the participants, who are often left out of the loop elsewhere.
Circular
- The whole installation is conceived as a dismountable structure, allowing to preserve all applied materials : the containers can be disconnected, the arches dismantled with nuts and bolts, ... this concept is also applied in the technical installations such as electricity, heating, sanitary equipment...
- Wherever possible, recycled materials were used: second-hand sea containers, materials found on the site (e.g. natural stone, wood, ….), etc.
Climate adaptive
- Rainwater is collected in a 15.000L tank for re-use in the toilets and for a water play area that provides cooling in summer;
- the existing concrete slab was opened up in a number of places to allow infiltration of rainwater and the planting of greenery;
Increasing biodiversity
- The existing, spontaneous vegetation was largely preserved and new (edible) plants were planted and are maintained by the youngsters who are active on the site.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The neighbourhood around the West station is in the process of urban transformation. It is a rather rough environment, with a lot of traffic, infrastructure, noise, litter and dust from the numerous building sites. The plot where the Molenwest Square is temporarily located was a genuine ‘non-place’: an ugly concrete plate surrounded with a metal fence, used as a depot for discarded building materials. The surrounding buildings are a cacophony of forms, materials and architectural styles, each of which demands the attention of passers-by in its own way. Meanwhile, the public space for pedestrians around this busy junction is extremely cramped and devoid of character: it is dominated by cars, trams, buses and trucks that claim most of the public space in this highly mixed city district.
In the design for Molenwest Square, we tried to combine the need for intimacy and shelter with a cheerful, imaginative design that explicitly wants to give a new identity to this public space. In the design phase, we felt inspired by the drawings of the 'instant city' Archigram made in 1968. Several parallels can be drawn with this project : on the one hand, the ambition to temporarily infiltrate the local community with a series of activities; on the other, an architectural language with an imaginative twist but still making a powerful statement in its surroundings. The iconic design provides enough identity to be recognisable in any location - after all, the installation is movable and will find a new location within a few years.
Finally, the overall architectural morphology and urban figure is strong, but the interior design is explicitly a little rough and not quite finished. With this, we wanted to give the users(including a fablab) the psychological space to adopt the space and finish it according to their own taste.
Key objectives for inclusion
Molenwest Square is a place for everyone. You can spend 5 minutes alone reading your book or you can develop an ambitious project with several others associations. It's a mix between a classical public space and a community building giving a shelter for local initiatives. From the beginning, local actors were involved in the project : to know what they wanted, what they were ready to offer and to design the place together with architecture office.
Local municipality is managing the site together with the core associations. We had to create several tools to work together and to make decision on an equal basis. Every actor is linked to the municipality with a convention. But we also created a reglement and a charter to agree on rules to improve collaboration and living together. We made a planning to know when the site is avalaible and to be sure that the other associations and the public know when the activities take place. If another local actor wants to occupy the place, thet simply have to fill a form and each request it discussed with the core associations. We are constantly trying to improve the site, it is evolving, and we meet each month (local authorities, associations) to discuss events, improvements, events and so on.
All the users of premises (inhabitants group or association) can have the place for free, there is no rent price. And of course, all the activities proposed on the site are free of charge for the public. The site is easily accessible for person with disabilties. And eventually, we have been working lately on a study and on tools to have as much girls as boys (in Molenbeek especially boys are clearly more prevalent in public spaces).
Results in relation to category
Before Molenwest Square, there was nothing on the site but a wasteland with a lot of trash, old urban furnitures, rats and big advertising boards. It was actually a place that people avoided because they did not feel safe around it. All the neighboordhood suffered from this situation. Moreover, there was no place to meet and connect with their neighbours or to safely develop a social work or local initiatives. Through Molenwest Square many people and yougnsters developed their projects, their event ant took back the place - and children can have a safe space to play (protected from the trafic) which is valuable in an area so densified (large families are over-represented compared to the regional average while there are few large houses in the area and even fewer with a garden) and with quite a young population.
Thanks to Molenwest Square, the inhabitants can now meet and create projects together or they have some social services closer to them (homework help, permanence for substandard housing...). And by having cooking classes or by creating new clothes in the fablab, they feel they can accomplish something fot themselves but also for the community. People can share their knowledge and know-how to improve the site or just to help others, for instance with the repair café.
More globally, the image and reputation of the neighbourhood is changing with this first visible installation.
How Citizens benefit
Molenwest Square was built from the beginning in collaboration with local associations and inhabitants of the neighbourhood.
We had the opportunity to create this project during the same period of two urban revitalization programs. The projects developed in those two programs are based on a diagnosis - which included a participative fase (consultation, workshops...). Both diagnosis clearly showed a lack of associative and public space. That is why creating Molenwest Square was both important and urgent. And after the architecture competition phase, the design was fine-tuned in strong collaboration with the future users of the site, to meet their functional needs and interests.
Another aspect that came out of the participation process was the concern about security and the need of a safe space. We therefore decided to hire a concierge living on the site. It is an asset for security but it is also now a great help to maintain the site clean, to create links with the neighbourhood and between associations and to make sure that some public feel safe to come and play : girls, unaccompanied children.
Molenwest Square also works because the associations that use it are collaborating : they want to make the project work for themselves and for others. And in the day to day life of Molenwest, the civil society is still involved. Indeed, as soon as the site opened, many other associations or inhabitants knocked to the door to realize their own project. We decided that it would be the core associations, the concierge and the local authority to take the decision to accept or not another actor on the site. Every new project is discussed in an horizontal manner, and we represent a wide range of categories of the society (each association speaks for a group). We check together if each project fits with the values and planning of the place. So Molenwest Square is still evoluting and integrating new ideas and projects from the neighbourhood.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
In the practice of urban transformation, 'temporary use' of buildings or plots is gradually becoming mainstream. In current practice, however, it is often the case that such 'occupations' first arise from the initiative of a local grassroots movement that is driven by the commitment of volunteers. Secondly, it is also often the case that after the temporary occupation has ended, the actors disappear from the scene and play no further role in the planned urban renewal. The use of recycled materials is quite common in temporary occupations, but after the temporary occupation is over, most of it disappears into the waste container. Molenwest Square functions in a different way and can therefore be considered an innovative example in the following areas:
- it is a temporary occupation, organised by the local authority but activated by semi-professional associations with socio-cultural ambitions. The approach can therefore be considered 'top down' (government financing & management) and 'bottom up' (horizontal and inclusive programming of activities) simultaneously, combining the best of both worlds.
- the ambition is to give the involved associations on the long term ( > 3-5 years) a more permanent place in the neighbourhood, after the ‘Molenwest square’ – installation has moved to a new site. But meanwhile, the associations are building up a network of local partnerships and have the time to build up their organisation capacity. Molenwest Square is a springboard for young socio-cultural organisations to grow and root into the local context.
- the associations specifically respond to the demands of disadvantaged groups (in many temporary occupations, we tend to see the cultural elite as the main character)
- the infrastructure is designed to be robust and demountable. When the temporary occupation ends here, the installation can be easily moved and rebuilt in another place and the story begins anew.
Learning transferred to other parties
So far we have received many visits, from other municipalities of the region or that wanted to know more about the project and we are always happy to welcome them on site and to explain the projet (the background, the day-to-day management).
We aslo send an annual report to the region - which is not only on Molenwest Square but most part of it is. It is not an evaluation report but more like an activity report to justify how the regional subsidies are being used by the municipality of Molenbeek (for the management of Molenwest among other projects). We also participated in the redaction of the "guide for temporary occupation in the Brussels Capital Region" and we think this document should be shared as well. We have a clear budget and clear documents with the technical specifications for the architectural part of the project available.
If we had to transfer the project's results and learning, we could easily - with all those data already existing - summarize and articulate those various elements to turn it into a complete file (with written guidelines, technical documents, visual and audio elements) on the Molenwest Square creation and day-to-day management.
With this documentation ready, it would be interesting to make other municipalities - the administration and the political representatives - aware of this methodology and the values that activated and guided the Molenwest Square project.
