European Quarter - Brussels

New urban design for the European Quarter

The authorities of the Brussels-Capital Region, in close partnership with the European Commission and the City of Brussels, launched a major competition in April 2008 aimed at defining a new urban design for the European Quarter. The area devoted to the competition includes the zone around the rue de la Loi, between the circular ring and the chaussée d’Etterbeek.

The international and interdisciplinary team composed of Christian de Portzamparc (France), Jacques Wirtz (Belgium), Coteba Belgium and OVE ARUP (Great Britain) was announced as the winner of the competition on March 5, 2009 out of thirty-five projects.

The goal of this competition was to create an urban design with a strong symbolic identity, featuring convivial public spaces, priority for non-motorised mobility and public transport, and buildings of high environmental quality and architectural value.

The project is in keeping with the objectives defined by the recent Master Plan for the European Quarter. It aims to transform the zone into an eco-district combining the first European and international administrative site in the region, diversified housing as well as cultural and leisure spaces. In addition, it responds to the stated goal, as expressed jointly by the regional authorities and the European Commission, of reorganizing the buildings of the Commission so that they occupy both sides of the Rue de la Loi while encouraging significant functional and social diversity.

This ambitious project of refitting envisages a rationalization and a concentration of the presence of the Commission along the rue de la Loi. It implies that the office area occupied by the Commission in the zone will increase by about 230.000 m², i.e. from 170,000 m² to 400,000 m², subject to the relinquishment of an equivalent amount of m² in Commission buildings in adjacent areas.

Next steps:

2009 – further work on the urban design;

2009 – 2011 – realisation of a binding urban plan;

from 2011 – construction of new buildings.

 

 

Last update: 05/03/2009 | Top