project 1 - Lost in translation. Setting up a dialogue between (non)expert builders from an urban comparative perspective in Cairo and Brussels
project description
This project interrogates amateur building practices at the domestic scale in the light of good practices promoted in architectural discourse and institutions. This was the subject of Dalila Ghodbane's doctoral thesis on the city of Cairo. A number of observations made in Brussels suggest the relevance of establishing a link with the results of this thesis. The transition from sustainable discourse to practice – professional and non-professional - requires deciphering the language of each actor, at the risk of getting lost in translation.
How to apply the knowledge produced from Cairo’s cases in Brussels? To what extent can concepts like informal urbanism, vernacular construction travel? Challenging the so-called great divide between the Global South and the North, this project aims to bring a fresh look at urban renewal as it happens at the small scale in Brussels, which remains too rarely tackled in the urban research.
‘Lost in translation’ is a research project that shares the kitchen of an ethno-architectural inquiry in Brussels. The project is innovative both in its content and its form, since it consists in three podcasts in which we will hear the voices of those who build and maintain their homes in the margins of the professional practice both in Cairo and in Brussels. With a visual support, the audience and the researcher both explore and experiment the comparison between the inhabitants of both cities, and their allies in their refurbishment projects, like builders, associations, and architects. The outcome is an immersive and reflexive experience that offers a fresh insight into construction as it takes place in urban homes today.
project members
Dalila GHODBANE (CEDEJ & ARCH, VUB) [dalila.ghodbane@usi.ch] • Stephanie VAN DE VOORDE (ARCH, VUB) [Stephanie.Van.de.Voorde@vub.be]
project partners
Centre d'études et de documentation économiques, juridiques et sociales (CEDEJ), Cairo. Contact: directioncedej@cedej-eg.org
project page
project 2 - Playing the green field – media release
project description
The triple health, biodiversity and climate crisis that has marked our lives in the past 2 years, has dramatically increased levels of anxiety among urban dwellers, especially youth. Faced with lockdowns and a continuous stream of alarming news on the state of the environment, urban nature has become a fundamental yet scarce and threatened source of resilience for many. This project aims to offer a tool that engages decision makers of today and the near future in helping cities find a more positive balance with nature.
"Playing the green field" is a serious game on urban resilience targeting diverse groups of players to design scenarios of green infrastructure for their district. The game shows players how a combination of green roofs, rain gardens, urban trees and other green infrastructure help to reduce climate related risks and increase overall quality of life. The game builds on an urban hydrology and environmental modelling tool that provides a spatially distributed and quantitative assessment of green infrastructure benefits such as reduced flooding, heat island, air quality and biodiversity improvement.
The development and testing of the game proposed in this project aims to contribute - in a playful way - to the STEM curriculum of youth in Brussels and beyond and show decision makers and investors of today, how a grounded approach to green infrastructure development contributes to the urgent green and just transition.
project members and partners
Nora VAN CAUWENBERGH (VUB/HYDR, BitaGreen) [Nora.Van.Cauwenbergh@vub.be] • Nahad Rezazadeh Helmi (VUB/HYDR, BitaGreen) [nahad.rezazadeh.helmi@vub.be] • Boud Verbeiren (VUB/HYDR, Flowbru) [boud.verbeiren@vub.be] • Ann Van Griensven (VUB/HYDR) [Ann.Van.Griensven@vub.be] • Dimitri Crespin (VUB/HYDR) [Dimitri.Crespin@vub.be] • Elena Lopez-Gunn (Icatalist) [elopezgunn@icatalist.eu] • Sara Ros Cardoso (Icatalist) [sroscardoso@icatalist.eu]
collaborating projects
project 3 - The Urban Topography of Exclusion under National Socialism in Literature and the Arts: Representing Clandestinity in Metropolitan contexts
The main objective of the project is to organize an international conference and a parallel civic activity, including an evening lecture for a large lay audience. Other actions – as Conference proceeding’s publication and creation of a project website – allowing for the involvement of researchers, students and the general public, are planned. The cooperation with human rights organizations (Fondation Auschwitz), museums (Kazerne Dossin and Jewish Museum) and other research centres (Institute of Jewish Studies, Antwerp). The project intends to study the urban topographical dynamics of anti-Semitic Nazi exclusion policy through the analysis of literature and the arts (painting, cinema) immediately after the advent of Nazism, during wartime and after the Shoah. A comparative perspective across the different cities in occupied Western Europe and the Third Reich (Brussels, Antwerp, Paris, Luxembourg, Dresden, Berlin, Vienna) will allow a more complete view, taking into account the condition of exile when the artists were forced to flee Nazi Germany and take refuge in neighbouring countries, constantly changing their places of exile. Many of them moved from one city to another, and these cities kept their mark. The issue is to question these imprints (in the works) and the interrelations that these urban places offered: clandestinely, being hidden by networks of friends, on the contrary – being denounced, etc. The choice of proposed cities is based on those urban places that were most marked by the disruptive events, nevertheless leaving a margin for other complementary research perspectives (such as e.g. Ostende, Marseille).
project members
Arvi SEPP (CLIC, VUB) [Arvi.Sepp@vub.be]
co-organisers
Prof. Atinati MAMATSASHVILI (Ilia State University (Tblissi, Georgia), Institute of Comparative Literature (ICL) [atinati_mamatsashvili@iliauni.edu.ge]
in cooperation with
Prof. Vivian LISKA (Institute of Jewish Studies (IJS)) [vivian.liska@uantwerpen.be]
