Forging the Fallow

Team Point of View

Charleroi’s territory is widely known for its industrial mining history and the outdated image of le Pays Noir. Through time, this territory has been constantly claimed and reclaimed, spawning the idea of exploitation, occupation and regeneration. Different waves of transformation resulted into the surreal landscape in which industrial land, urban tissue and green-blue elements are constantly mixed. The condition of Porte Ouest as fallow land, as a land in rest on the verge of a new cycle of transformations, is our starting point to re-imagine the site. The project aims to explore a circular design approach towards new productive futures. Therefore, three main actions are proposed: re-connecting the site, re-generating the land and re-circulating productivity.

Jury Point of View

The project answers the questions raised via an open process: economies and activities, links between the canal and the river, logical and ecological circuits, multiple connections in particular to the Chaussée de Mons. The project develops synergies and different scales incorporating a broader territory. The advantage of this open approach is that it can integrate projects related to water or recycling and re-utilisation of the industrial heritage.