Charleroi- A landscape 'as found'

Charleroi- Landscape ‘as found’

By Shubhra Kansal Promoters- Prof. Kelly Shannon, Prof. Bruno De Meulder MaULP Thesis I Department of Architecture I Faculty of Engineering Sciences I KU Leuven

Charleroi- Landscape ‘as found’

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Master Thesis MaULP (2019-2021) Written by Shubhra Kansal Promoted by Prof. Kelly Shannon, Prof. Bruno De Meulder

I would like to thank my thesis promoters Prof. Kelly Shannon and Prof.

Bruno De Meulder for their constant support and guidance throughout the Masters.

All the drawings are by the author, unless otherwise credited Master (of Science) of Urbanism Landscape and Planning Department of Architecture Faculty of Engineering Science KU Leuven © Copyright by K.U.Leuven Without written permission of the promotors and the authors it is forbidden to reproduce or adapt in any form or by any means any part of this publication.

Requests for obtaining the right to reproduce or utilize parts of this publication should be addressed to: K.U.Leuven, Faculty of Engineering Science Kasteelpark Arenber g 1, B-3001 Heverlee (Belgium).

Telephone +32-16-32 88 94 Email: mahs-mausp@kuleuven.be

A written permission of the promotor is also required to use the methods, products, schematics and programs described in this work for industrial or commercial use, and for submitting this publication in scientific contests.

I learnt the most from the Charleroi region itself. It is a very exciting region to study and I have been fortunate to know it deeply through the comically articulated and insightful voice of Prof. Bruno De Meulder in my head.

I would like to thank my parents and friends for the special support needed in the time of this ‘stay at home’ pandemic.

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The thesis investigates how the persistent socio-economic problems of the postindustrial territory and inhabitants of Charleroi can be challenged by using the landscape as the overhauling instrument. Through mapping and re-interpretation, the new landscape figures are‘found’ and subsequently re-imagined providing thus a new-spatial frame to structure present and future urbanity.

1. Introduction

1.1 Industrial past

1.2 Socio-spatial legacy

1.3 Current urban projects

1.4 Neo-nature- an opportunity?

To understand the dwelling of this landscape by humans, the thesis uses the concept of ‘Ecological Floors’/ ‘Ecological complementarity’ as studied by John V. Murra et al in the book “Anthropological history of Andean Polities”. It also borrows and inspires from the concept of the city in a city/ the Berlin Archipelago 1977 by Oswald Mathias Ungers, Rem Koolhaas et al. The project site chosen for a designed intervention is a former coal mine that was flattened to build social housing in the 1970s. It also comprises mine worker’s housing of 19th century which today finds itself in architecturally poor and socially obsolete conditions.

2.

Reading the surface 2.1 Land works 2.2 Urban traces 2.3 Social scars

3.

Ecological floors 3.1 Agro-artisanal 3.2 Industrial 3.3 Post-industrial

4.

The Charleroi Archipelago 4.1 landscape ‘as found’ 4.2 City in a City

5.

The project site 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Analysis 5.3. Re-composing the site 5.4 Proposal

Keywords Ecological floors, Urban Archipelago, Social housing, Post- industrial landscape, Neo-nature

Conclusions

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The different scales of study

3.5km X 2.5km

18km X 12km Figure 1 : Google earth images of the Charleroi Region (source- google earth)

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900m X 600m

300m X 300m

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1. INTRODUCTION Located in the Sambre valley basin between the Brabant plateau and the start of the rolling hills of Condroz, Charleroi finds itself in the coal occurring belt that spans the countries of France, Belgium, and Germany. The occurrence of coal and the human will to extract this resource to create new technologies, new inventions, new comforts but also new problems are what shaped this mining belt that includes the region of Charleroi.

In Belgium, coal mining and industrial production of Iron, steel, and glass were centered in the Sambre Meuse Valley spanning cities of Mons, Charleroi, Namur, and Liege also known as the Sillon Industrial Belt. Many of these regions, especially Charleroi were massively transformed and settled with mines and production units and mostly unplanned and poor-quality worker housings. Internal local migration from the countryside to these ’sites’ as well as regional migration from the agricultural area of Flanders to the new economic opportunities in this industrial region led to a mass settling of this land. (Pirsoul 1953) (Dumont 1994) “ …est la veine charbonnière s’est ouverte, telle une plaie, de l’angleterre à l’Allemagne ” (..the charcoal vein opened like a sore from England to Germany) (Auquier 1970)

Figure 2 : Map showing the coal belt spanning France, Belgium and Germany

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Figure 3 : Map showing the coal basin of the Hainaut Province of Wallonia, Belgium

(source- Administration des Mines , Carte des concessions houillères des provinces de Hainaut, de Namur et de Liège, 1906 , Service public de Wallonie, Fichier raster, accessed on 13/02/2021, http://geologie.wallonie.be/home/acquisition-de-donnees/telechargements/documents-anciens/cgmh.html

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1.1 INDUSTRIAL PAST Coal was always mined for subsistence as heat energy and for artisanal activities in the region. It has a long legacy of glass making specially in the villages of Jumet and Lodelinsart. (Pirsoul 1953) But since the 1800s the increasing quest for industrialization made the coal-rich Charleroi, a major industrial center of Europe in the 19th century. The subsequent technologies of steam engine allowed water pumping and resource extraction at an industrial scale.

Its urban development was from here on linked to the diffused coal veins that are spread over large territories. The mines placed in a dispersed manner created organizational units to extract this resource.

This created a somewhat diffused and polycentric spatial development that simultaneously is un-dense and peri-urban for most of its surface. The only real centers of activity were the mines and factories, which are gone now

Figure 4 : Painting showing industrial activities on the Sambre Riverbanks

(source- Yves Auquier 1970, Le Pays Noir)

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Figure 5 : Map of mining concession boundaries spanning Mons, Louviere and Charleroi (source- Administration des Mines , Carte des concessions houillères des provinces de Hainaut, de Namur et de Liège, 1906 , Service public de Wallonie, Fichier raster, accessed on 13/02/2021, http://geologie.wallonie.be/home/acquisition-de-donnees/telechargements/documents-anciens/cgmh.html

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1.2 SOCIO-SPATIAL LEGACY With the gradual withdrawal of this economy base from the 1930s century, the territory has persistently faced a social and economic crisis. Charleroi has been unable to recover from the moving out of economic opportunities and catapult towards a different way of living/ settling in the territory. Its diffused settlement pattern has further led to car-centric mobility and engaged highway oriented industrial investments.

56% of the population of Charleroi lives in difficult neighborhoods while the city suffers from high unemployment rates. The mapping of these areas leads to a very dismal coloring up of almost the entirety of the Charleroi’s metropole region. (Vandermotten et al. 2006) Modern social housing was built from 1900 onwards to cater to the growing housing problem, while the old substandard speculative workers class housing continued to deteriorate, as it does to this very day.

The thesis aims to find value in investigating an alternate development frame for Charleroi that is embedded in its landscape palimpsest. It tugs on the field of Landscape Urbanism to find spatial strategies that recognize the value of the new natures, social neighborhoods, and the struggles of its inhabitants to ‘find’ a new landscape that is merely hidden at the present.

Figure 6 : Photograph of a workers house located close to the slag heap

(source- Yves Auquier 1970, Le Pays Noir)

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Figure 7 : Difficulty index (2006) of belgian neighbouhoods represented with site contours layered with the industrial ‘wastelands’ as mapped

by Furlan 2015

Furlan, Cecilia. 2017. “On Worn Out Landscapes. Mapping Wasteland in the Charleroi and Veneto Central Territories.”

Vandermotten, C, P Marissal, G Van Hamme, Christian Kesteloot, Katrien Slegers, A Vandenbroucke, B Ippersiel, S de Bethune, and R Naiken. 2006. Dynamische Analyse van de Buurten in Moeilijkheden in de Belgische Stadsgewesten. Grootstedenbeleid, Brussel.

Industrial ‘wastelands’

Migrant neighbourhoods in difficulty Neighbourhoods in medium difficulty Neighbourhoods in low difficulty

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1.3 CURRENT URBAN PROJECTS Since its industrial decline, Charleroi has been the focus of state attention and regional funding. Recently, the Charleroi Metropole has launched ‘le projet du territoire’ (the project of the territory) that recognizes the region as a basin de vie (basin of life). (Charleroi Métropole 2021) The Métropole has also worked on its identity and intends to bank upon it for its economic revival. The slag heaps and neo-nature are regarded as part of the green assets of the metropole. There are educational excursions, family picnics and solo hikes to these new ‘peaks’.

The landowners and regional authorities are in the process of stimulating the task of cleaning up contaminated industrial sites and making them attractive for new investments. Some of these are being transformed by creating big projects that involve a partial cleanup and an adjacent redevelopment of the site. Simultaneously, new projects are in the pipeline to inject new energies to the static figure of Charleroi’s economy. Unfortunately, one could say that these projects are oriented till now towards influential lines of motorways, the city center, and the riverfront . This reflects a reliance on conventional but also outdated planning concepts that are based on private car transport. Such an approach disregards the looming challenges of climate change and disturbed ecologies. It equally promotes a neo-liberal system by ‘selling’ the riverfronts to affluent class-based developments.

Recognizing the fragmented and peri-urban nature of Charleroi’s urban tissue, some piecemeal attention has gone into creating a revitalization project in older neighborhoods, upgrading public spaces.

(Magnette and Lacomblez 2015) What is not being recognized and valorized is a cohesive and alternate vision that will not be arrived at by merely re-development projects and especially not those that re-mine the terrils to provide real estate opportunities.

Figure 8 : Map of recent built and proposed urban projects in Charleroi Region

New economic zones public space oriented projects mixed-use renewal projects landscape oriented projects infrastructure projects

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1.4 NEO NATURE- AN OPPORTUNITY? Meanwhile, the terrils/ soil tips have become the new forests. The abandoned mining sites and its paraphernalia of un-used railways, tunnels, industrial platforms have sprouted neo-nature growing in these neglected, undisturbed, unaltered host surfaces. An amount as enormous as the industrial operation was, has been retaken by nature in the last 70 years and is pointing us to a new understanding of the post-industrial region.

This can be seen as the healing of a grey smog covered terrain into a nurtured neo-nature. This altered perception can lend an opportunity to reframe the region while losing ambitions to ‘re-develop’ it as it is far too large in amount.

RESEARCH QUESTION Taking the side of the spontaneous resilient neo-nature and the massive ‘found’ post-industrial landforms, how can the urban be repositioned in a new landscape frame that recognizes and addresses the social and economic challenges that developed with Charleroi’s industrial and mining past?

Figure 9 : Neo-nature covering the region as captured from a terril

(source- author)

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2 READING THE POSTINDUSTRIAL SURFACE In Charleroi as important as topographical lines are the coal veins that are found in different depths and intensities, like uneven chalk lines on a pavement. The distribution and allocation of mining concessions began an episode of fragmentation and exploitation of the parceled land. The drawing shows a part of the Charleroi region comprising a concession mine called Trieu Kaisin that deployed multiple pits to raid the coal veins of its precious contents.

The deployment of pits created new dynamics on the surface. Coal became the new foci around which the housing of the industrialist, engineer and mine workers found space. The existing village settlements were densified, and new parcels sub-let to make space for the population growth that the industrial mining feeds on. In this section, by taking the case of this mining concession, the author will map the urban and landscape alterations to narrate the story of the land.

Figure 11 : Google map showing the focus area for this section of the thesis (source-google earth)

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Figure 10 : Coal Extraction in the pre-industrial period (source- Yves Auquier 1970, Le Pays Noir)

Figure 12 : Mapping the sub-surface coal veins and the extraction pits of the industrial period (Base map source- google earth)

Sub-surface coal veins Mining pits

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2.1 Land works An interesting and highly revealing exercise is to go back in time through historic documentations and map the modifications of the territory that accompanied the settling of its surface and its sub-surface in this case.

Till around mid 18th century, Charleroi is a territory with much of its landscape domesticated and forests still protecting the steeper and difficult slopes. Artisanal coal extraction did not yet modify the surface of the mined land structurally. Given the limited scale of this extraction, it is largely absorbed within the given environment.

Figure 13 : Section of the pre-industrial land

Figure 14 : Plan showing the contours of the pre-industrial surface of the region

Agriculture Pasture land Forests Orchards

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Early nineteenth century altered the territory permanently for a long time to come. The steam engine enabled efficient water pumping leading to large scale exploitation at greater depths. Massive mining units were set up near extraction pits. Old pits were closed and new ones founded as per their extraction efficiency and its profit economics. Internal circuits of rail lines were laid to transport the coal from the land beside the extraction pit to the adjacent coal cleaning and storing unit while also transporting the waste material to the site of the present spoil tip.

These inner rail lines/ mine sites had to be connected also to the bigger transport lines linked to iron and steel factories or to water channels in order to be transported to markets, cities, industrial zones. The making of these rail lines introduced new incisions and dikes on the topography of the site. This modification along with the first accummulations of the spoil tips were the earliest alterations of land in this industrial time period.

Figure 15 : Section at the start of the industrial period

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Figure 16 : Plan showing the contours of the pre-industrial period layered with the coal veins of the sub surface

Sub-surface coal veins Mining pits

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Figure 17 : surface plan in 1839 Railroads servicing the mine locations are creating dikes and incisions on the surface

Figure 18 : Surface plan in 1904 Terrils/ spoil tips forming due to the industrial mining of sub-surface coal

Railway lines spoil tips dikes incisions

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coal mines water

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At the end of the mining period whose decline began in the early twentieth century, the land had been altered enormously. Old valleys were now filled or had new amoebic contours, high lands were heightened by the deposition of a new spoil tip, the Sambre valley was filled with new earth to make raised industrial platforms while incisions and dikes stitched and pierced the surface to accommodate new infrastructures.

Figure 19 : Post industrial section

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Figure 20 : Surface plan at the end of mining era The contours of the present postindustrial terrain

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The tranquility and rest provided by 70 years of time to these massive land works and extraction infrastructures have led them to be re-taken by nature. This nature is of a different kind, of a new genetic composition, resistant to and thriving in different soil conditions. This repose has seeded new forests, new shrubs, and grasses. The experience of this natural diversity is accentuated and experienced differently in changing seasons. Many of these still need more time to become loftier and more evolved versions of themselves.

This soft yet resilient nurture of an anthropogenically subjugated territory is of great value.

Combined with the neo-nature are the remaining landscapes of agriculture parcels, pasture lands and garden complexes. These different intensities and textures of the green provide an interesting premise for a vision.

Figure 21 : Neo-nature at sunset

Figure 22 : Post-industrian terrain sprouting new resilient nature in over 70 years

Nature topography

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Figure 23 : Photograph showing road orientedworkers housing (Source-Author)

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2.2 Urban Traces The settling of the land until the agro-artisanal period of the early 18th century as drawn in the Ferraris Map of 1777 shows the domesticated landscape that frames the urban. Water, an important resource was a major urban structuring element. Villages were anchored closely to this resource, next to the valleys. In principle, villages comprise of a dense core arranged along a street with a more dispersed plot division around it. The village structure takes different forms depending upon the topographical conditions. Many village settlements have public gardens and parks.

As is visible from old drawings and paintings, individual houses were built of wood and stone. Old maps reveal their connections to other houses by soft paths and the presence of orchards in the back gardens. In the case of more pastural dwellers, the pasture is either adjacent to their house or is a collectively managed asset in the valleys.

Although the house plots were of varying sizes, each seems to have a productive garden attached to the dwelling unit .

Figure 24 : Painting showing the houses and their relation to the land in pre-industrial era

(Source- Charleroi Hier... Aujourd’ hui 1996)

Figure 25 : Map showing house plots layered with Ferraris map 1777

Urban 1777 Urban 1839 Urban 1904 Urban 1939

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Urban 2000

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The advent of industrial-scale mining brought a huge change in the parcellation of the territory. Plots were subdivided and sublet for building accommodations for the incoming migrants in search of work. A doctoral research by C. Dumont in 1994 documents this population explosion as well as the land management and legal complications that started arising. (Dumont 1994) The mapping of the additional housing from the map drawn in 1873 shows the increased density as well as the sub-division of the housing parcels.

Figure 26 : 1839 Parcellation of the territory to house the incoming working population

Figure 27 : 1904 Urban roads and industrial infrastructures begin to consolidate as the urban develops close to mine location along movement corridors

Along with the urban explosion, the mapping revealed how the settlement roads and pathways started becoming more consolidated and new plots were found along these more prominent roads. The former proximity of the housing to the water was now replaced by a preference for mobility to reach mining sites.

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New waves of a growing industrial city brought new waves of housing.

By 1900s new roads were developed after old roads found themselves saturated. Always in relation to the mining and factory locations, the housing started aligning itself more and more to roads as corridors of movement. This changed the relation of the housing to the landscape enormously and its implications continue to structure 21st century urbanization.

Many of the workers housing areas were built on mining land close to the unhygienic conditions of coal dust and smoke. Generally, the worker’s house sizes were small, and most were not built for familial lifestyles. These poor-quality houses were located along roads and in smaller pockets close to earlier industrial sites. (Mosseray 2012) The mapping reveals that the houses closest to the mining units were built and relocated frequently for as long as the mining continued to shape the land around it. The housing closest to the slag heaps were situated in poorer conditions and subject to frailer construction quality, as is visible from photographic documentations. (Auquier 1970) Simultaneously, the building of new infrastructure links created new avenues for the housings to locate.

In the early 19th century, as the poor workers housing continued to precariously self-build, the more prosperous middle class that had benefited from the industrialization began aspiring cleaner living conditions with healthy open spaces. (Mosseray 2012) Coinciding with such concerns elsewhere in the industrialized nations, the garden city movement took its form in Charleroi.

From 1900 onwards, in the leftover spaces emptied out by the industries larger land parcels could still be found. In the wake of a growing housing and economic crisis, the state stepped in to create social housing in these spaces. (Mosseray 2012) These houses took the form of modern tower blocks placed in flattened polluted soils. Some social housing was also developed as low-rise plot developments.

Figure 28 : Photograph showing relation of old housing to mining locations

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Source- Jo Struvyen 2021, Exposition EnFer, Marcinelle Bois Du Cazier

Figure 29 : Photograph of modern social housing in Montignies Sur Sambre (source- author)

Figure 30 : 1939 Modern social housing towers developed as long buildings near mining locations

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Figure 31 : Photograph of Modern social housing (Source-Author)

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2.3 Social Scars The large-scale industrial operation on the land has structured an urbanity and left a legacy of a post-industrial region. The omnipresence of jobs of the industrial period have been replaced by massive unemployed populations living in poor housing conditions and environment quality, also inherited from the industrial era. The thesis discusses and addresses these issues in order to put in motion a vision that needs urgent formulation to effectuate major change.

Condemning low-income groups to low quality worker’s housing of the 1800s.

As traced in the previous section, the mobility-oriented workers housing was built on small parcels of land. They had a poor construction quality and were meant to be the sleeping quarters of the miners with little or no familial lifestyles. Moreover, the internal spaces were imagined to be used for 1/3 of the day and do not correspond to current lifestyles. (Mosseray 2012) It is unfortunate that housing that was of poor standards even for the time period it was built in, has managed to survive for more than 100 years. It continues to trap and condemn lower income groups due to its low rents and relatively large stock.

Figure 32 : Photograph showing the large stock of old housing surviving till the 21st century (Source- Jo Struvyen 2021, Exposition EnFer,

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Marcinelle Bois Du Cazier)

Figure 33 : Photograph showing the condition of workers housing presently (source- author)

Figure 34 : Photograph showing the road oriented urban development (source-author)

Figure 35 : Photograph showing tje condition of workers housing presently

Figure 36 : Photograph of a workers house located close to the slag heap

(source- Yves Auquier 1970, Le Pays Noir)

(source-google 2021)

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Modern social housing as spaces of exclusion While studying the social housing in Charleroi, Jean Mosseray writes that while the social housings were a tool to bring more inclusion by providing space for disadvantaged populations in the city, they have in fact become spaces of social exclusion synonymous with terms like ghettos and enclaves. She argues that industrialization and worker’s struggles of a territory like Charleroi have turned into postindustrial issues of exclusion.

Social housings gather people with similar socio-economic conditions in the same spot which creates a disconnected and excluded ‘inside’. In her thesis, she arrives at design strategies to increase the interaction between the ‘inside’ and the ‘outside’ by looking beyond current urban trends of demolishing housing towers and replacing them with medium rise housing block. (Mosseray 2012) This design thesis is inspired from this study and its design ideas.

Figure 37 : Photograph showing poorer quality of space near social housing Figure 38 : Photograph of a social housing block with a blank facade Figure 39 : Photograph showing low maintenance quality in social housing Figure 40 : Photograph showing low maintenance quality in social housing (source- author)

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Neglected Neo-Nature The new nature taking shape in the industrial and territorial remnants of Charleroi has been able to grow due to relative human inactivity on these sites. The surface of the metropole is vast and a postindustrial region like Charleroi does not have the resources to maintain this huge quantity of land. It is partly due to this reason that many old buildings and land parcels have been taken over by nature due to inactivity and their complex re-use costs. While emergent nature finds time and space to flourish, these spaces become equally ridden with all sorts of garbage. These spaces suffer from being ill-defined and accentuate the social troubles of the inhabitants.

Figure 41 : Nature sprouting in an under maintained plot Figure 42 : Way to the forested terrils filled with garbage Figure 43 : Unused tramline filled with junks and scraps Figure 44 : Under maintained space between housing and terril

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Figure 45 : Photograph of a terril compound (source- author)

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3 ECOLOGICAL FLOORS This section of the thesis is inspired and based on the concept of ecological floors as studied by John V Murra in his book- ‘Anthropological History of Andean Polities’. His very inspiring work documented and unraveled the settlement and culture of the people of the Andes Civilization. The land stretched from the seacoast to the high altitudes of the Andes mountains. His work documents how the people of this sectionally diverse landscape formed socio-spatial polities that enabled resources from one ecological niche to benefit the other through ties of kinship and family. In this way different ecological niches complemented each other and were crucial for the survival of the Andes civilization. (Murra, Wachtel, and Revel 1986) Using the same lens, Charleroi can be seen as a land settled according to its ecological niches anchored in topography. In the next section, the author maps the different ways this land was settled in its 3 time periods of : agro-artisanal, industrial, and postindustrial.

Figure 47 : Painting showing life in the Industrial era (Source- Yves Auquier 1970, Pays Noir)

The drawing of these settlement patterns retrieves their relationship with the territory. It points to an alternate way of inhabiting the landscape presently. This enables not only a valorization of the the spatial traces of previous life cycles but also sets in motion a long-term vision that can embed/ re-embed the settlement within the landscape.

Figure 48 : Painting showing life in the agro-artisanal era (Source- Charleroi Hier... Aujourd’ hui 1996)

Figure 46 : Sectional diagram to show the different sectional characteristics of Charleroi’s ecological floors

Figure 49 : Photograph showing life in the postIndustrial era

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(Source- Author)

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Agriculture Pasture land Housing Mines

Figure 50 : Sections representing the ecological floors of the three lifecycles of agro-artisanal, industrial and postIndustrial respectively

Water

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Industrial platforms roads

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3.1 Agro-artisanal The Charleroi region finds itself on both sides of the Sambre River Basin. The ecological floor of the agro-artisanal period is based on the soil and topographical conditions of the terrain that are distinct on each side of the river . While in the north of Sambre the soil is sandy loamy with a smoother terrain and softer slopes, the land to the south is of a calcareous composition and rises steeply to form deeper valley systems. In the past, Gallic tribes and Roman check posts have aligned themselves closer to the banks of the river while using the higher altitude forests as observation and signaling points.(Pirsoul 1953) The settlements differ structurally in relation to these terrain characteristics from the north to south. The village structure in the northern sandy loamy soil can be read as a somewhat continuous settlement anchored on the navigable slopes and valleys. The calcareous southern land is dotted with nebulous villages located near the valleys.

Urban

Forests Pasture lands Orchards agriculture valleys steep altitudes

Figure 51 : Map showing two different settlement structures stemming from geological and topographical differences on both sides of the Sambre River.

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The Ferraris map reveals the winding turns of the Sambre River and its soft riverbed used as a pastureland by its inhabitants. Smaller inland valleys were similarly used as naturally fed vegetative pastureland for the cattle. Villages located themselves adjacent to these valleys mostly on the ascending slopes. In the village, individual houses had orchard back gardens and had access to village commons like parks and meadowlands.

The fate of the higher land was dependent on its slope characteristics.

Steeper lands were abundant with forests of recreational and wood resource value, while the flatter lands were cultivated with food crops.

Figure 52 : Map showing the relation of water to the settlements

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3.2 Industrial The occurrence of sub surface coal deposits in the geological belt spanning France, Belgium and Germany can be understood as an ecological niche. A certain kind of industrial mining settlement finds itself in the exact boundary contours of this sub-surface resource. In Charleroi, setting aside the topographical characteristics, coal mining units were diffused in this coal belt adhering to the exploitation opportunities of this massive ecological floor.

However, looking closely at how the industrial settlement embeds itself in this land, it becomes evident that the earlier important structural elements of water and topography play an equally important role.

While coal extraction led to the cutting of forests and put the whole territory to the task of extraction, the transportation linkages of rail and in some cases sky ropes were much dependent on the topography.

Spoil tips Mining pits rail lines valleys steep altitudes

Figure 53 : Map showing the coal mining apparatus diffused throughout the region

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The heavy metallurgical factories of iron and steel plants require great amounts of water and good transportation. They were placed in the Sambre Valley. The meandering soft riverbeds of the Sambre River were filled raised and levelled to create industrial platforms and a channelized water transport regulated by water locks.

The medium to small factories like those for construction material and glass fabrication were situated higher up in the territory and linked to the valley via railroad. Many of these production units found themselves in the small valleys , as here the railway lines were laid due to easy terrain and here gentler hitherto unoccupied pastoral land parcels were located. Importantly, these small valleys also had a presence of water which was needed for industrial operations. So, the way the water was used changed drastically from Charleroi’s previous lifecycle and the way the slopes were occupied reveals a different relation than the pre-industrial period.

Spoil tips Mining pits rail lines valleys steep altitudes Industrial platforms

Figure 54 : Map showing the relation of industrial platforms to the valleys

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Interestingly, in the maps of the industrial period, parks of different shapes and sizes spread throughout the land are emphasized. In the book ‘Designing for a Region”, De Meulder argues that the presence of parks can be read as the first form of disconnection of the city from nature.(Meijsmans 2010) “As useful as they may be, parks ultimately serve as witness to the broken relationship between the city and nature.”

De Meulder 2010 (Meijsmans 2010, Pg 217) Was this an attempt by the map makers and industrialists to emphasis and invent a green beauty of their increasingly polluted landscape ?

Spoil tips Mining pits rail lines valleys steep altitudes Industrial platforms Parks

Figure 55 : Map showing the appearence of green parks as being representative of a disconnection or urban and nature

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3.3 Post-Industrial The presently inhabited post-industrial land of Charleroi can be understood as a culmination of the past layers of settlements that the territory has housed. Remnants of the agro-artisanal period, in the form of village cores, have now become densely urbanized while less urban lands still house productive pockets of agriculture and pastures.

In abandoned mining and industrial sites, neglected neo nature has re-forested lands amidst the urban omnipresence and now provides new ecological niches for its inhabitants to dwell in. The valleys that drain the land presently follow altered storm water trajectories. Water has found new surfaces for collection and run-off due to the largescale land works. This has naturally sprouted and continues to feed new vegetation patches.

The higher lands including more easily visible terrils, become the new forests. Citizen activism has found value in some of these terril forests and formed communities and organizations to care for it and decide on its future. (Chemins Des Terrils 2016). Interestingly, there are governmental research reports documenting the natural composition and biodiversity of the terrils. (Hauser and Ghilain 2010). And lastly, there are multiple academic studies exploring the topic of Commoning of the terrils. (de Visscher 2019) Old infrastructures where railways once steamed past or where public trams were planned yet never made operational now lie steaming with new vegetation and garbage bags. The inactivity that has helped sprout a new nature also signifies an apathy and neglect towards these urban infrastructures that were built with huge amounts of labor and material.

Figure 56 : Photograph of a small pasture in the middle of houses

Figure 57 : Map showing the vast post industrial land, where traces of earlier life cycles have created a unique terrain

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Road-oriented private mobility has consolidated itself and has never been challenged ever since. Furthermore, the ownership of private car has made it a prominent mode of transport, covering the city in massive flyovers and sealed surfaces.

Housing quality is still an urban concern as old poor quality worker housing from the industrial period persists in a large quantities and social housing tower blocks are yet to integrate themselves with the urban tissue.

In this regard, the present territory is more complex to understand than in the past. The scale of the project is vast and if Charleroi is to be a ‘bassin de vie’ (basin of life) (Charleroi Métropole 2021), it must support and nurture a new relationship with its land. The following section attempts to ‘find’ this new relation for the urban and set in motion a new vision.

Figure 58 : Map showing the continued importance of roads as an urban determinant

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4 CHARLEROI ARCHIPELAGO The underlying design concept is that the base for a new vision is already present in the territory. All its constituents are already pointing towards a vision and are merely waiting to be ‘found’. The task of the designer is thus to find these powerful structures hidden in the territory and make them the strong base on which will be anchored the future of the urbanity.

Figure 59 : Digital surface map of the present topography layered with the industrial land works mapped earlier

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Figure 60 : Existing vegetation and urbanisation layered on the surface elevation model

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4.1 ‘as found’ landscape The first step in this, is to understand the present contours of the topography deeply. Informed by the analysis of the shaping of the land and the Digital Surface elevation map accessed from the Geodatabase of Wallonia, the drawings map the ridges, the new valleys, and the slopes.

Wetness Ridge lines

Figure 61 : Mapping the contours of the new valleys, new movements of water, the ridges, high terrain of terrils

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Layered on this map are the vegetation comprising the new forests of new nature, the agricultural and pastural traces. This starts revealing the larger ecological structures of the territory. These are recognized as important assets that are undeniably intrinsic to the urban form.

Ridge lines Agriculture Pasture land Neo- forest

Figure 62 : Layering vegetation of neo-nature, agriculture, pastures

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Selective urban morphology that is aligned with the ‘as found’ ecological structure is mapped. Road based urbanization that has been consolidated since the 18th century is hazed out to help see new connections for the urban that go beyond mere roadway links. What starts becoming apparent, is that when the road logics are taken away from the map, the distilled urban already seems to be following the logics of the contours and is placed in some relation to the ecology around it.

The urban seems to be embedded in a larger system of varied vegetative environments. From this perspective, each of the ‘as found’ urban structures can be read as a ‘city’ in this city.

Figure 63 : Mapping the urban islands

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4.2 ‘City’ in a City The concept of the city in the city or the Urban Archipelago, is an urban manifesto for the city of Berlin. Born from the thinking and design explorations of Oswald Mathias Ungers, Rem Koolhaas, with Peter Riemann, Hans Kollhoff and Arthur Ovaska, the manifesto proposed a “semi theoretical, semi-operational call” to structure the dispersed, diffused, post-urban metropolis of Berlin. (Ungers et al. 2013 ,pg 7) The authors argue that the city had undergone an urban influx in the past that had covered the entire city with rampant urbanization. And that now, the city is experiencing depopulation and shrinking that call for re-envisioning the city. The manifesto hence put forth an alternate urban model that goes beyond re-developments and urban renewals.

(Ungers et al. 2013) “Contrary to the doctrine of urban renewal that was fashionable at the time, this new model would embrace the underlying premise of depopulation in western cities and metropolises, and envisage these as archipelagos of urban islands set in a sea of greenery, which would incorporate the atmospheres of nature, the ingredients of agriculture and the infrastructure of contemporary suburbia. “ (Ungers et al. 2013, pg 7) The shrinking city of Berlin no longer needed the vast urban produced hitherto, and thus over the years many parts of the city were abandoned’ and found themselves retaken by ‘spontaneous’ nature.

The documentary “Natura Urbana” tells the story of these spaces of adventive nature / “islands of biodiversity” which it terms as ‘brachen’.

(Gandy 2017) This new model of the ‘city’ in a city intended to distill the characteristic components of Berlin’s urban metropolis to “intensify the experience of Berlin as an architectural ensemble.” (Ungers et al. 2013, pg 13) Embracing the shrinking and “dismantling” of the urban parts that are “substandard”, the manifesto proposed the only additions to the city be in the form of completing or reinforcing the “gestalt of the particular islands that are selected”. (Ungers et al. 2013, pg 13-15) These urban islands are located amidst a plethora of green textures.

The “sea of green” or the “green lagoon of natures” make up the natural grid of different densities of nature in the form of “hunting safaris, forests, wildlife preserves, urban farms and the infrastructure of the Modern Age...” (Ungers et al. 2013, pg 19) Lastly, the model stresses that apart from architectonic considerations, the archipelagos could be identified based on their social and political differences. (Ungers et al. 2013)

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Figure 64 : Urban Islands seen in their ‘sea of green’

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The thesis finds that an interpretation of this conceptual urban model can take root in the region of Charleroi through the ‘as found’ landscape. Furlan concludes her research thesis on the ’wastelands’ of Charleroi by arguing how these very spaces can be the point of departure in imagining a new vision for Charleroi. (Furlan 2017) “By opening the door to seeing the wasteland not merely as a blank space but as a bearer of numerous values, and accepting its role in our everyday urban landscape, the potential of the urban territories could be considerably increased.” (Furlan 2017, pg 317)

Figure 65 : The Charleroi Archipelago

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Figure 66 : Zooming in to a site and studying existing social infrastructure around the site

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Figure 67 : Mapping the ecological figures in the context of the chosen site. The terril forest system, the stepped valley system and the ridge are important structuring elements.

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5. THE PROJECT SITE INTRODUCTION The site chosen for a detailed design is located close to a former mining site. It is representative of the different housing tissue from modern social housing towers to old workers housing.

Thus this site is capable of revealing the different social and ecological issues of exclusion, public space neglect, large sealed surfaces, poor quality of housings and private mobility.

The forest

The Ridge

The valley

Figure 68 : Drawing a growth of the recognised elements to shape the Urban Archipelago.

Figure 69 : Google map aerial view of the design site (source- google maps)

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5.1 ANALYSIS Spatial Exclusion

Mapping the heights of trees and hedges reveals how vegetation has been pruned and planted to form enclosures. When seen in relation to social housing blocks, the buildings seem bounded by taller vegetation in strategic places. One can argue that this seems rather planned in order to to keep out the unwanted or the unpleasant.

Similarly the hedges around the more affluent low rise housings are much taller than those around low rise social housing. This perhaps enables a reverse enclosure of keepin in the wanted and the pleasant.

The use of fences reinforces in a hard way what the vegetation is very effectively accomplishing.

Figure 70 : Photograph showing the fencing around an educational institution (source- google earth)

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Figure 71 : Placement of tall trees close to social housing towers (source- google earth)

Figure 72 : Site map layered with the vegetation drawn as contours of 1.5m each

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Urban backyards

Figure 73 : Low rise social housing backyard with a soft interesting differentiation between public and private space

Figure 74 : Existing internal connections that go beyond providing space for the car

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Figure 75 : Mapping the backyard of the old workers housing which has now been extended with self made structures to fulfill their modern needs. Although the space create is interesting, it is of low quality and could be aided by design (source- google images)

Figure 76 : Site map showing the large quantity of self made backyard structures

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Sealed surfaces

Figure 77 : Photograph showing the huge spread of sealed surfaces put in place for car centric mobility. These are monofuntional and expensive to maintain thereby reducing the quality of environment for the inhabitants. They also contribute to increased water stress and heat island effect at an urban level.

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Figure 78 : Photograph showing a large sealed surface at the base of 6 large trees

Figure 79 : Site map highlighting sealed surfaces

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Figure 80 : Map showing the relation of the sealed surfaces to the underlying topography

Figure 81 : A disintegration of the road surface by following topography lines. The ‘found’ mineral slabs can now be re-imagined as urban connectors. Surface can be partly desealed by drilling holes economically to create a thin urban forest that provides varied environments for its inhabitant

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The mineral slabs Figure 82 : Zooming out to see the continuation of these ‘found’ mineral slabs beyond the site boundaries.

As the roads and large asphalt parking spaces are relatively flat/ easier terrain, their new interpretation as urban connectors eases movement for bicycles and pedestrians.

The ‘found’ mineral slabs Existing Vegetation

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Reading the vegetative structure Figure 83 : This scale helps to understand better the vegetative structure. The vegetation can be reinforced and extended to form spatial links across previously disconnected parts of the urban.

The existing tree lines become linear shaded pathways. The patches of trees become larger urban forests for recreation, wood and ecological resilience.

The existing private hedges can be pruned to provide walkways while retaining their required degree of privacy.

The water movement through the valley has been mapped to help place new urban water strategies.

Existing Vegetation Vegetation extensions

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A new relation to the landscape Figure 84 : The non porous mineral slabs act as large water collectors. Thus retention ponds are dug near the lowest elevation points. This collected water resource can help undertake productive activities of agriculture, poultry, tree nurseries, etc.

Vegetation after 10 years

Agriculture/ productive land Water ponds, retention surfaces

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The thin forest

Figure 85 : T h e mineral slabs are partially de-sealed to create a differently textured thin forest. Grasslands, small forests, row plantations, mosaic patches are placed in accordance with the larger vegetative structure.

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New housing The new housing insertions aim to maintain an incremental building approach. Especially in the poorest neighbourhoods of the old workers housing. As is seen in the housing strategy on the far right of the drawing, the houses help re-orient the plot to create a longer area for the families to build new units as per their need. The design idea is to space these new units along the plot while maintaining a vegetative porosity to enhance the quality of these dwellings.

In the space of the old housing located in the new forest, the housings are compacted into tower blocks to provide a better vantage point to enjoy the forest while also freeing up the ground space for the nurture of more trees.

Figure 86 : The design site showing the insertion on new housing oriented towards the new frame, the grown vegetation, water ponds and productive lands.

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Site Sections

Low rise social housing

Large sealed surfaces

Modern social housing

Large sealed surfaces

Old workers housing

Figure 87 : Existing Section

Tree nursery Figure 88 : Proposed Section

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Dense collective forest

New Housing

Thin forest

South facing terraced housing

New terraced housing

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Site isometric

Figure 89 : Existing Isometric view

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Figure 90 : Proposed interventions

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Design views

Figure 91 : View of the school retension pond/classroom

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Figure 92 : Productive garden and soft paths adjacent to new housing

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CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

If Charleroi is to become a ‘basin of life’, it needs to take the side of its thriving nature, inherited topography and unique assets to overcome the troubles it finds itself in presently. A large overhaul is needed, but it needs to come from shifting the design gaze towards these lost assets. There must be a deep aversion to neo-extractivist design interventions.

Auquier, Yves. 1970. Pays Noir. 1st editio. Pool d’Edition et de Rédaction sprl.

The design ideology in this thesis has been to use the most of what is already abundant in the territory. Charleroi is an especially abundant metropole. Apart from its physical assets that the thesis has hopefully been able to highlight and valorise, there is a resilient population living on the land. The abundance of their human capacities is perhaps also yet to be unlocked. The author believes that including the inhabitants in the shaping of the design implementation proposals will lead to designs as resilient as the territory.

Cooman, René De, Victor Bourgeois, and Herman Vos. 1946. Charleroi : Terre d’urbanisme. Bruxelles : Art et Technique.

Charleroi Métropole. 2021. “Projet de Territoire de Charleroi Métropole.” 2021. https://www.charleroi-metropole.be/fr/news/2021/03/05/leprojet-de-territoire-presente-ce-5-mars-2021/.

Chemins Des Terrils. 2016. “Boucle Noir.” 2016. https://cheminsdesterrils.be/2016/08/02/la-boucle-noire-du-gr-412/.

Dumont, Cécile. 1994. “Migrations Intérieures et Immigration Dans Le Bassin Industriel de Charleroi : 1800-1866.”

Fichefet, J. 1935. Charleroi: Étude de Géographie Urbaine. Travaux / Cercle de Géographes Liégeois. Librairie de la Bourse. https://books. google.be/books?id=zgagAAAAMAAJ. Furlan, Cecilia. 2017. “On Worn Out Landscapes. Mapping Wasteland in the Charleroi and Veneto Central Territories.”

Gandy, Matthew. 2017. Natura Urbana: The Brachen of Berlin. https://www.naturaurbana.org/about/.

Hauser, S, and A Ghilain. 2010. “Actualisation de l’étude et de La Cartographie Du Réseau Écologique Du Territoire de La Ville de Charleroi.” https://www.chana.be/chana/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/reseau_ecologique.pdf.

Magnette, P, and S Lacomblez. 2015. Charleroi Métropole: Un Schéma Stratégique 2015-2025. C. Ernotte. https://books.google.be/ books?id=%5C_yJRMQAACAAJ. Meijsmans, Nancy. 2010. Designing for a Region.

Mertens, Sven, Michaël Stas, and Benjamin Vanbrabant. 2015. “Exploring Le Pays Noir-Design Investigations for a Productive Landscape in the Charleroi Region.” KU Leuven.

Mosseray, Jeanne. 2012. “Inside Outside, Cité Parc Charleroi.” Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. https://issuu.com/jeanne-moss/docs/masterpaper.

Murra, John V., Nathan Wachtel, and Jacques Revel. 1986. Anthropological History of Andean Polities. Cambridge University Press. https://doi. org/10.1017/CBO9780511753091.

Pirsoul, Maurice. 1953. Le phénomène urbain dans la région de Charleroi. Charleroi : Heraly. http://lib.ugent.be/catalog/rug01:001960505.

Ungers, O M, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Riemann, Hans Kollhoff, Arthur Ovaska, Florian Hertweck, and Sébastien Marot. 2013. The City in the City : Berlin: A Green Archipelago. Zurich: Zürich : Lars Muller.

Vandermotten, C, P Marissal, G Van Hamme, Christian Kesteloot, Katrien Slegers, A Vandenbroucke, B Ippersiel, S de Bethune, and R Naiken.

2006. Dynamische Analyse van de Buurten in Moeilijkheden in de Belgische Stadsgewesten. Grootstedenbeleid, Brussel.

Visscher, Jean-Philippe de. 2019. “Planning for Commoning: Design Research into the Terrils of Charleroi.” Journal of Landscape Architecture 14 (2): 70–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/18626033.2019.1673585.

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Figure 42 : Figure 43 : Figure 44 : Figure 45 : Figure 46 :

TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 93 : Table of Figures Figure 1 :

Map showing the coal belt spanning France, Belgium and Germany

Figure 48 : Figure 47 : Figure 49 : 6

Figure 2 : Map showing the coal basin of the Hainaut Province of Wallonia, Belgium (source- Administration des Mines , Carte des concessions houillères des provinces de Hainaut, de Namur et de Liège, 1906 , Service public de Wallonie,

Figure 3 : Figure 4 : Figure 5 :

Fichier raster, accessed on 13/02/2021, http://geologie.wallonie.be/home/acquisition-de-donnees/telechargements/documents-anciens/cgmh.html 7

Google earth images of the Charleroi Region(source- google earth) 8 Painting showing industrial activities on the Sambre Riverbanks (source- Yves Auquier 1970, Le Pays Noir) 10 Map of mining concession boundaries spanning Mons, Louviere and Charleroi (source- Administration des Mines , Carte des concessions

houillères des provinces de Hainaut, de Namur et de Liège, 1906 , Service public de Wallonie, Fichier raster, accessed on 13/02/2021, http://geologie. wallonie.be/home/acquisition-de-donnees/telechargements/documents-anciens/cgmh.html 11 Figure 6 : Photograph of a workers house located close to the slag heap (source- Yves Auquier 1970, Le Pays Noir) 12

Figure 7 : Difficulty index (2006) of belgian neighbouhoods represented with site contours layered with the industrial ‘wastelands’ as mapped by Furlan 2015 Furlan, Cecilia. 2017. “On Worn Out Landscapes. Mapping Wasteland in the Charleroi and Veneto Central Territories.”

Vandermotten, C, P Marissal, G Van Hamme, Christian Kesteloot, Katrien Slegers, A Vandenbroucke, B Ippersiel, S de Bethune, and R Naiken.

2006. Dynamische Analyse van de Buurten in Moeilijkheden in de Belgische Stadsgewesten. Grootstedenbeleid, Brussel. 13 Figure 8 :

Figure 9 : Figure 11 : Figure 10 : Figure 12 :

Map of recent built and proposed urban projects in Charleroi Region

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Neo-nature covering the region as captured from a terril (source- author) 16 Google map showing the focus area for this section of the thesis (source-google earth) 18 Coal Extraction in the pre-industrial period (source- Yves Auquier 1970, Le Pays Noir) 18 Mapping the sub-surface coal veins and the extraction pits of the industrial period (Base map source- google earth)

19 Section of the pre-industrial land 20 Plan showing the contours of the pre-industrial surface of the region 21 Section at the start of the industrial period 22 Plan showing the contours of the pre-industrial period layered with the coal veins of the sub surface 23 surface plan in 1839 Railroads servicing the mine locations are creating dikes and incisions on the surface 24 Surface plan in 1904 Terrils/ spoil tips forming due to the industrial mining of sub-surface coal 25 Post industrial section 26 Surface plan at the end of mining era The contours of the present postindustrial terrain 27 Neo-nature at sunset 28 Post-industrian terrain sprouting new resilient nature in over 70 years 29 Photograph showing road orientedworkers housing (Source-Author) 31 Figure 24 : Painting showing the houses and their relation to the land in pre-industrial era (Source- Charleroi Hier... Aujourd’ hui 1996) 32 Figure 25 : Map showing house plots layered with Ferraris map 1777 33 Figure 26 : 1839 Parcellation of the territory to house the incoming working population 34 Figure 27 : 1904 Urban roads and industrial infrastructures begin to consolidate as the urban develops close to mine location along movement corridors 35 Figure 28 : Photograph showing relation of old housing to mining locations Source- Jo Struvyen 2021, Exposition EnFer, Marcinelle Bois Du Cazier 36 Figure 29 : Photograph of modern social housing in Montignies Sur Sambre (source- author) 36 Figure 30 : 1939 Modern social housing towers developed as long buildings near mining locations 37 Figure 31 : Photograph of Modern social housing (Source-Author) 39 Figure 32 : Photograph showing the large stock of old housing surviving till the 21st century (Source- Jo Struvyen 2021, Exposition EnFer, Marcinelle Bois Du Cazier) 40 Figure 33 : Photograph showing the condition of workers housing presently (source- author) 40 Figure 34 : Photograph showing the road oriented urban development (source-author) 41 Figure 35 : Photograph showing tje condition of workers housing presently (source-google 2021) 41 Figure 36 : Photograph of a workers house located close to the slag heap (source- Yves Auquier 1970, Le Pays Noir) 41 Figure 37 : Photograph showing poorer quality of space near social housing 42 Figure 38 : Photograph of a social housing block with a blank facade 42 Figure 39 : Photograph showing low maintenance quality in social housing 42 Figure 40 : Photograph showing low maintenance quality in social housing (source- author) 42 Figure 41 : Nature sprouting in an under maintained plot 44 Figure 13 : Figure 14 : Figure 15 : Figure 16 : Figure 17 : Figure 18 : Figure 19 : Figure 20 : Figure 21 : Figure 22 : Figure 23 :

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Figure 50 : Figure 51 : Figure 52 : Figure 53 : Figure 54 : Figure 55 : Figure 56 : Figure 57 : Figure 58 : Figure 59 : Figure 60 : Figure 61 : Figure 62 : Figure 63 : Figure 64 : Figure 65 : Figure 66 : Figure 67 :

Figure 68 :

Figure 69 : Figure 70 : Figure 71 : Figure 72 : Figure 73 : Figure 74 :

Figure 75 :

Way to the forested terrils filled with garbage 44

Unused tramline filled with junks and scraps 44 Under maintained space between housing and terril 44 Photograph of a terril compound (source- author) 47 Sectional diagram to show the different sectional characteristics of Charleroi’s ecological floors 48 Painting showing life in the agro-artisanal era (Source- Charleroi Hier... Aujourd’ hui 1996) 49 Painting showing life in the Industrial era (Source- Yves Auquier 1970, Pays Noir) 49 Photograph showing life in the postIndustrial era (Source- Author) 49 Sections representing the ecological floors of the three lifecycles of agro-artisanal, industrial and postIndustrial respectively 51 Map showing two different settlement structures stemming from geological and topographical differences on both sides of the Sambre River. 52 Map showing the relation of water to the settlements 54 Map showing the coal mining apparatus diffused throughout the region 56 Map showing the relation of industrial platforms to the valleys 58 Map showing the appearence of green parks as being representative of a disconnection or urban and nature 60 Photograph of a small pasture in the middle of houses 62 Map showing the vast post industrial land, where traces of earlier life cycles have created a unique terrain 62 Map showing the continued importance of roads as an urban determinant 64 Digital surface map of the present topography layered with the industrial land works mapped earlier 66 Existing vegetation and urbanisation layered on the surface elevation model 68 Mapping the contours of the new valleys, new movements of water, the ridges, high terrain of terrils 70 Layering vegetation of neo-nature, agriculture, pastures 72 Mapping the urban islands 74 Urban Islands as seen in their ‘sea of green’ 76 The Charleroi Archipelago 78 Zooming in to a site and studying existing social infrastructure around the site 80 Mapping the ecological figures in the context of the chosen site. The terril forest system, the stepped valley system and the ridge are important structur ing elements. 81 Drawing a growth of the recognised elements to shape the Urban Archipelago.

82 Google map aerial view of the design site (source- google maps) 82 Photograph showing the fencing around an educational institution (source- google earth) 84 Placement of tall trees close to social housing towers (source- google earth) 84 Site map layered with the vegetation drawn as contours of 1.5m each 84 Low rise social housing backyard with a soft interesting differentiation between public and private space 86 Existing internal connections that go beyond providing space for the car 86

Mapping the backyard of the old workers housing which has now been extended with self made structures to fulfill their modern needs.

Although the space create is interesting, it is of low quality and could be aided by design (source- google images) 86

Figure 76 : Site map showing the large quantity of self made backyard structures 86 Figure 77 : Photograph showing the huge spread of sealed surfaces put in place for car centric mobility. These are monofuntional and expensive to maintain thereby

reducing the quality of environment for the inhabitants. They also contribute to increased water stress and heat island effect at an urban level. 88 Figure 78 : Photograph showing a large sealed surface at the base of 6 large trees 88 Figure 79 : Site map highlighting sealed surfaces 88 Figure 80 : Map showing the relation of the sealed surfaces to the underlying topography 90 Figure 81 : A disintegration of the road surface by following topography lines. The ‘found’ mineral slabs can now be re-imagined as urban connectors. Surface can

be partly desealed by drilling holes economically to create a thin urban forest that provides varied environments for its inhabitant 91 Figure 82 : Zooming out to see the continuation of these ‘found’ mineral slabs beyond the site boundaries.

As the roads and large asphalt parking spaces are relatively flat/ easier terrain, their new interpretation as urban connectors eases movement for bicycles

and pedestrians.

92 Figure 83 : This scale helps to understand better the vegetative structure. The vegetation can be reinforced and extended to form spatial links across previously dis

connected parts of the urban. The existing tree lines become linear shaded pathways. The patches of trees become larger urban forests for recreation,

wood and ecological resilience. The existing private hedges can be pruned to provide walkways while retaining their required degree of privacy.

The water movement through the valley has been mapped to help place new urban water strategies. 94 Figure 84 : The non porous mineral slabs act as large water collectors. Thus retention ponds are dug near the lowest elevation points. This collected water resource can help undertake productive activities of agriculture, poultry, tree nurseries, etc.

96 Figure 85 : The mineral slabs are partially de-sealed to create a differently textured thin forest. Grasslands, small forests, row plantations, mosaic patches are placed in accordance with the larger vegetative structure.

98 Figure 86 : The design site showing the insertion on new housing oriented towards the new frame, the grown vegetation, water ponds and productive lands. 100 Figure 87 : Existing Section 102 Figure 88 : Proposed Section 102 Figure 89 : Existing Isometric view 104 Figure 90 : Proposed design interventions 105 Figure 91 : View of the school retension pond/classroom 106 Figure 92 : Productive garden and soft paths adjacent to new housing 107

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