A Virtual Environment for the Analysis and Evaluation of Alternative Urban Development Projects for the Brussels Capital Region

This project focuses on the design and development of a platform for the deliberation of the existing alternative urban development projects prepared for Brussels. The motivations for this study were:

1) The need for integrated planning environments for deliberation and participation due to the problematic urban situation in Brussels: During the last century, a combination of urban policies caused the destruction of architectural heritage and the nature of the city, with a compromising collaboration of the public sector (also known as Brusselization) (Lagrou 2003). This trauma created a protectionist attitude among the citizens and strangled large-scale developments. Potentials of alternative urban development projects as a reflective resource: Alternative urban development projects (AUDPs) simultaneously cover representations of the existing urban environment and imaginations of different realities. Thus they provide different frameworks for the discussion of the contemporary situation of the urban context (Pak and Kuhk 2009).

2) Potentials of Web 2.0: Web 2.0-based geographic technologies (GeoWeb 2.0) stand as strong alternatives to the traditional, linear, and hierarchical knowledge production methods. They are well positioned as a medium for facilitating dialogue and learning as well as communicative action (Roche et al. 2012; Hudson-Smith et al. 2009).

The research started with an in-depth review of the alternative approaches, AUDPs, and technological applications developed around the world. Based on this analysis, it lead to the creation of a conceptual design. Then, we two prototypes were implemented with two nongovernmental environmental organizations such as BRAL vzw, Groen Belgium and Jeunes Natuurlijk.