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URBAN PALIMPSEST
Thesis:
John Pottage
Charlie Sutherland modernist territory map #01 - Northern Quarter, land extending from Rue de Brabant to the Gare Maritime. unsustainable identifying key urban and ethical problematic restoration of buildings are palimpsest to create bridge, creating the Northern to construct identified along history and local that nuture inhabitants of
This thesis explores the potential of using palimpsest as a tool to analyse and understand the unsustainable legacy of modernist planning principles in Brussel’s Northern Quarter, with a view to identifying key urban conditions that have been lost, and strategically intervening to establish productive, sustainable, and ethical urbanism in the district. Ultimately, creating a methodology that can be used to rehabilitate other problematic modernist districts in the future.
A palimpsest analysis focuses on a strategic East-West strip of the district, and proposes the restoration of a historic thoroughfare to re-connect the district to the wider city. Unsustainable modernist buildings are viewed as valuable repositories of component artefacts that can be re-arranged as a palimpsest to create new thriving streetscapes. A disused modernist building is re-imagined as a mixed-use street bridge, creating an urban pathway over a railway embankment on the district’s Eastern edge, re-connecting the Northern Quarter to the neighbouring district of Schaerbeek. Remaining reclaimed components are used to construct the new street as it continues West to connect with Molenbeek, with three key urban themes identified along its route, each derived from an urban palimpsest analysis: stone, earth & water.
As an anthithesis of dogmatic modernist planning principles, this approach is rooted in history and local context, restoring the Northern Quarter’s lost identity. Thereby establishing ethical urbanism that nuture a diverse range of economic activities, providing opportunity and accommodation for the inhabitants of Brussels in 2023.
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