Lecture

Urban Transformation: Brussels

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Description

This lecture explores how transportation and mobility have reshaped Brussels, focusing on the impact of railways and highways on the city center. It also discusses the recent pedestrian project and its potential to transform the city. The historical context of the North-South connection project, spanning over 50 years, is analyzed, from the initial agreement in 1903 to the completion in 1952. The lecture highlights the urban changes brought by the project, including the construction of a central station and the displacement of thousands of residents. The challenges faced during the construction, such as building a tunnel and creating a new boulevard, are detailed, along with the criticism of the architectural choices made. The social implications of the urban transformation, focusing on the displacement of the population and the prioritization of tourists over residents, are also discussed.

In MOOC

Mobility and urban planning

Over the last twenty years, urban mobility has changed significantly. The number of leisure trips has risen, while the proportion of work-related trips has fallen. At the same time, new forms of mobility have developed, such as multi-residentiality, long-distance commuting, urban tourism and day-tripping. These changes have been accompanied by urban transformations such as urban sprawl and fragmentation. In this context, mobility is an issue for urban transport engineering and territorial development, par

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Related concepts (16)

Urban planning

Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportation, communications, and distribution networks and their accessibility.

Transport

Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipelines, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations. Transport enables human trade, which is essential for the development of civilizations.

Urban history

Urban history is a field of history that examines the historical nature of cities and towns, and the process of urbanization. The approach is often multidisciplinary, crossing boundaries into fields like social history, architectural history, urban sociology, urban geography, business history, and archaeology. Urbanization and industrialization were popular themes for 20th-century historians, often tied to an implicit model of modernization, or the transformation of rural traditional societies.

Theories of urban planning

Planning theory is the body of scientific concepts, definitions, behavioral relationships, and assumptions that define the body of knowledge of urban planning. There are nine procedural theories of planning that remain the principal theories of planning procedure today: the Rational-Comprehensive approach, the Incremental approach, the Transformative Incremental (TI) approach, the Transactive approach, the Communicative approach, the Advocacy approach, the Equity approach, the Radical approach, and the Humanist or Phenomenological approach.

Urban sprawl

Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growth in many urban areas of housing, commercial development, and roads over large expanses of land, with little concern for urban planning. In addition to describing a special form of urbanization, the term also relates to the social and environmental consequences associated with this development.

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