Heads up: we will be meeting M. Yves ROUYET, Échevin de l’Urbanisme/ Mobilité/ Patrimoine/ Bien-Être des Animaux/ Qualité de la Vie. The meeting is scheduled for Friday, December 6th at 12.00, in rue Mercelis 13, 1st floor. His secretary is RACHIDA AKOUAOUC, 02 515 64 69,
I imagine the delegation will be the same as the one in Forest: @chantal_vanoeteren, @manuelpueyo and myself. But this time I insist on preparation.
Preparation will work like this.
First, let’s use this platform topic to discuss how to make the most of the meeting: how to best present the concept, what questions to ask, what goals we should have.
To begin with, I believe we missed a polished five minutes concept presentation to open the Forest meeting ( I gave him the one minute version, wrongly believing he knew more about the Reef than we did), and we should have one now. Should I do it? Is my French good enough or should Chantal deliver it?
Others will have other observations – please state them.
Second, let’s take one hour before the meeting to put together a “meeting flight plan”, in which we decide who says what. We could meet at the office at 10 or 10.30, then leave in time to be in Ixelles at 12.00.
Yes, I agree that you should be the one doing the presentation. Your document is mostly fine. Two things are missing:
The Reef aims to be the common home of a group of people and small businesses. It is a hybrid space. One small company, Edgeryders, is both part of the prototype and a future “resident”.
The Reef has an important function in connecting its community of green living-minded residents with the European ecosystem of climate innovation. This is why Climate-KIC is considering investing in it. We are discussing with them establishing an interdisciplinary innovation lab on green living, which would be run by a consortium of universities in the Climate-KIC community and would be physically located in The Reef. This is documented here:
Could you and @manuelpueyo come to The Reef tomorrow? Activities:
meeting with Luc from Wooncoop at 9.00 (you can decide whether you want to come or not).
preparation of the Ixelles meeting at 10.30 (here you should definitely come). Then we will go to Ixelles together.
Today we @alberto, @manuelpueyo had a productive meeting with
Luc Maufroy (head of the Cabinet of Yves Rouyet, Echevin of urbanism of the
Municipality of Ixelles) and his colleague from the local administration in
charge of Urbanism. The competences of Yves Royet include Urbanism, Heritage,
Mobility, Quality of life and Animal Welfare.
To introduce our meeting, we presented the
concept of The Reef. We also gave them a brief description of the different
workgroups (Community building, climate innovative technology, climate
innovation living lab, finance,). We explored how The Reef project could match
with the local strategy of the Municipality with the focus on transition and
urbanism. They confirmed that transition, ecology and the idea of connecting our
activities with the local neighbourhood are important themes that are very much
appreciated by the local authorities in Ixelles. These topics are also strongly
integrated in the new policy statement.
Here is what we learned and discussed:
We discussed about different
buildings that will probably be transformed in the near future, but most of
them are too large for The Reef project and are already owned by private
developers. They also mentioned the spot of the former police caserns (Usquare),
on the corner with the avenue de la Couronne and the boulevard General Jacques
in Ixelles. They advised us to contact the director of the SAU (Société
d’Aménagement Urbain), who owns the site and who is in charge of the future
development of the spot. At this moment, you can already have a first glance at
the location since you can visit the temporary use initiative set up on this
spot (www.see-u.brussels).
Usquare is a regional initiative that will be developed on the same spot (after
the temporary use project). Usquare will be developed in very close
collaboration with two major Brussels based universities: the ULB and the VUB.
Usquare is one of the
10 different large regional neighbourhoods that will be reshaped during the
coming years. Most of these 10 PAD’s (Plan d’Aménagement Directeur) are managed
by the SAU. These other development sites might also be interesting spots to
explore for a future installation of The Reef project. This is a second reason/motivation
to get in touch with the director of the SAU. This link will give you an overview
of these 10 different important development sites in Brussels: http://perspective.brussels/fr/actualites/du-4-au-11-juin-2018-la-semaine-des-grands-projets-urbains
They also suggested us
to inform about potential investor or real estate developers that might be
motivated to invest in innovative co-living and co-working projects. The Reef
could be presented to hem as a « win win » situation for both The
Reef and the potential investor.
We also took this
opportunity to learn more about the most important and basic elements to have
in mind when introducing a planning/building permit for the transformation of a
former industrial or office building into a mixed initiative of housing and
working spaces:
Got some references to share
one question : which channel is the best to share this type of infos ? maybe seeds of brussels can get a new sheet for the reef ? @manuelpueyo@alberto
few thoughts after reading the compte rendu :
usquare was created after a public open call.
Parisian folks from crowdfunding won the square meters without knowing the territory and by stepping over locals that had massively answered to this open call. This experience is not a good deal between Ixelles and grassroots actors…Even if Ixelles is actually well known for all these vibrant grassroots initiatives on its territory.
the vision on urban reactivation of the winner (from kisskissbankbank) is contestated : they believe in fostering social change through the use of their own financial tools
==> low impact for local economy + precarisation of social innovation actors working on site
Going at SAU would b a relevant step !
SAU has land + buildings + money + time. But lacks of community + techs.
There is a crossing to analyze between the Reef essence VS the coming evolution of the 10 sites projects targeted by SAU & Perspective Brussels.
If one of these site is more ecological friendly than another, then SAU will sell the land with a more ecological friendly view to select coming owners and occupants.
And here come’s the Reef.