SOFT ROAD

This project seeks to counter problems with street encroachment caused by lack of enforcement of urban regulation in the neighbourhood. Situated in a context characterized by Flemish social housing typologies dating back to the 1940s, a cluster of families have appropriated part of the public space by transforming it to private parking outside their plot boundaries.

As the informal streetscape does not have formal boundaries between public and private, the physical divisions are produced by negotiations between residents and local authorities, resulting in encroachment on the streets, whereby the residents slowly alter the physical barriers marking their plots to take over parts of the street space. This development causes a multitude of problems for the residents, including decreased social interaction in the public sphere, informal voids with underdeveloped potential, and issues of formalizing the landownership. Accordingly, street encroachment leads to the degradation of the garden city as a great heritage value. A visit to the site helped to understand the issues around the divide of the public and the private this area had. The visit also allowed the group to see the lack of interaction with the green spaces. The current residents park their cars on the green spaces, blocking it for other usage, there also isn’t a clear indication who can park where, creating a tense atmosphere between residents as they take each other’s spaces due to it being a first come first serve basis.