Today's city

The spring

What was once the pride of Seraing has now become a symbol of desolation, pollution, mistrust and pauperisation. The city has suffered from one-sided development which has been devoted exclusively to industry and production. It is now becoming dysfunctional, thanks to the absence of any consideration for the life of the city itself. Smothered by the industrial buildings which dominate the earth and sky, the city is full of residential areas in which the inhabitants have to adapt to the requirements and needs of forms of production which no longer exist. Luc Schuiten shows us how to give a new form to the pedestrian street in which water has pride of place – like a ribbon, evoking the presence of a natural vitality all along its length. Starting from some rocks under a clump of trees, a spring erupts into the middle of the road and continues its journey as a stream, with grasses and wild flowers on its banks. The water goes round a closed circuit, thanks to a pump which is powered by solar panels located on the roof of a nearby building.

Image of a tree

In the tunnel which passes under the Rue de La Loi in Brussels, Luc Schuiten has created a decor inspired by the world of plants and vegetation - for in this hostile environment nothing can grow naturally. To mark the position of the pavement and to create a vista, there will be metal trees along the sidewalk, that will also act as supports for the lighting. The side walls of the tunnel will be covered with ceramic designs reminiscent of foliage. These ceramic designs show only a stylised representation of the foliage of a tree, its trunk and its branches being on the other side of the pavement. Thus the pedestrian is made aware of these two essential elements which go to make up a tree, broken down into two different planes in a manner which recalls a tree’s seasonal cycle. From a distance, anyone approaching on foot will see complete trees if looking sideways from the opposite pavement. The plastic artist who has been proposed for this work is Jacques Weemaels.

The banks of the stream

In considering sustainable development, the inhabitants of the city of Verviers wish to maintain the essential link between people and nature. Rivers and streams, which are veritable corridors of life passing through modern built-up areas, constitute a major asset in facing up to this challenge.

Nowadays Verviers, the Walloon water capital, is threatened with the construction of a 30,000 m2 shopping centre along the banks of the river around which the city grew up, the Vesdre. Luc Schuiten has chosen to react and look at the development of this watercourse in a new way. Pedestrian footbridges provide access to the banks and green spaces where tepees and woven willow-frame structures provide meeting points in the middle of wide flowerbeds covered with a variety of wild grasses. A water-wheel brings water up from the river in order to feed a stream which then flows into a wooded garden and subsequently winds this way and that to feed ponds on either side of the footbridge, until it finally flows into the Vesdre. Beaches are located on the banks, which are liable to flooding, and it can be seen how the landscape changes when the river is in spate. The banks are dotted with numerous areas marked out for the catering trade. Underground car parks mean that cars are excluded from this protected area, where gardens and concourse areas become the city’s lungs.

Nowadays, one of the 16 projects of new development in the cankers of Brussels has been realized : Place du jardin aux Fleurs. Another one is being finalized: the Cascade. The latter is a perfect example of urban ecology for its conception as weel as for its realization. The rain waters are used for the waterfall which is being powered by solar-energy pumps. The nicer the weather, the higher the cascade flows! The rocks do not imitate nature : they just suggest it by means of second hand tiled pavements. Only natural urban material. The laying of this ornament is to be done by a team of workers from the local jobcentre.

When Luc Schuiten plans new sites, his first preoccupation is to understand the ecological and cultural identity of the place and to magnify it into a new eco modernity.

Tollgate project of the Normandy A 29 highway : the vast portico that steps over it reminds us of the framework of the ancient farmhouses with half timbered buildings circled by double straight lines of high elms and beeches. Far from being and internationally designed architectural "item", the toll gate proclaims the identity of the travelled region and turns back to its soil. What is special about the administrative buildings is that they are inspired by the special nature of nearby cliffs of Caux : their astonishing horizontal stratums of chalky stone alternate with layers of black flint. The undulating green roof is made of a carpet of grasses, in order to take us back to the pasture land on top if the cliffs.