On Saturday 11 June, as part of the New European Bauhaus Festival, the Architects’ Council of Europe (ACE), with the support of its Belgian Member Organisations, will organise a one-hour-and-a-half guided tour of the Tour & Taxis site (Brussels), followed by a one-hour Policy Debate. The guided tour and the policy debate will aim to discuss challenges raised by the New European Bauhaus in relation to Architecture and Urban Planning, first through concrete examples during the tour, and then from a political perspective during the debate.

• Where/ How NEB core values have been implemented in Architecture and Urban planning in Brussels, contributing to a high-quality living environment for everyone?
• How can the regulatory framework (at all governance levels) support the achievement of NEB ambitions on the ground?
• What challenges do the professionals of the built environment face to achieve quality in the built environment, in particular when it comes to the intertwined drivers of NEB values?
• How can the NEB concept and values be implemented into architecture practice to achieve climate neutrality by 2050?

Agenda
10h45    Welcome 
Meeting point: Dépôt Royal- Reception booth, Av du Port 86C, 1000 Brussels 
11h00    Guided tour Dépôt Royal, Gare Maritime, Tour & Taxis     
By Korei Guided Tours     
12h30    Lunch     
Maison de la Poste (Tour &Taxis), Rue Picard 5/7, 1000 Brussels  
14h00    Debate: Confronting the New European Bauhaus and reality on the ground                                   
Maison de la Poste

Introduction & Moderation by Jacques TIMMERMAN, Fédération des Sociétés
d’Architectes de Belgique

Policy Debate with:
- Kristiaan BORRET, Brussels Bouwmeester
- Niek HAZENDONK, landscape architect, Member of IFLA Europe NEB Working
Group
- Sven GROOTEN, Founding partner & General director, B-architecten
- Marieke LAENEN, architecture student, Member of Stura KU Leuven
- Ruth SCHAGEMANN, Architects’ Council of Europe President

Conclusion by Jan MELIS, Conseil National de l’Ordre des Architectes Vice-President
and Vlaamse Raad President

15h00    End of the event

REGISTER HERE.
IMPORTANT INFORMATIONPARTICIPATION IN THE TOUR, LUNCH AND POLICY DEBATE IS FREE OF CHARGE UPON REGISTRATION (LIMITED PLACES AVAILABLE).

• After your registration via this google form, you will receive a confirmation e-mail from ACE (within a few days)
• Please register only if you are able to attend both the Tour and the Policy Debate
• If you register and ultimately cannot be present, please inform us immediately so we can give your place to another person.

Should you have any question, please contact us at: Julie.deutschmann@ace-cae.eu

Let’s walk! Guided tour of the Gare Maritime

The Gare Maritime, once Europe’s largest railway station for goods on the Tour & Taxis site in Brussels, has been transformed into a covered city with a mixed program of working and shopping and plenty of public space to relax. Under impressive steel roofs Neutelings Riedijk Architects designed the new Gare Maritime as a city district; ‘a city where it never rains’.

Public gardens and squares Under the existing roofs of the side aisles, twelve new pavilions have been added to accommodate the new program. They create a new structure of boulevards and street, gardens and squares, that follows the existing urban context and the building structure in a natural way, like a true city.    Largest CLT-project in Europe The new pavilions have been constructed in Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), with an enormous reduction in the amount of cement as a result. The choice for wood also had a favorable effect on the construction process: thanks to prefabrication and the dry constructing method, the construction time was considerably shorter.

State-of-the-art in sustainability Gare Maritime is entirely energy neutral and fossil free. The glass facades on Picardstreet are provided with solar cells. On the roofs a total area of 17,000 m2 of solar panels has been installed.   At all levels far-reaching sustainability measures have been implemented, such as use of geothermal energy and reuse of rainwater. Gare Maritime is an important contribution to the sustainable development of the Tour & Taxis site and the Kanaalzone in Brussels.

Description of the site by Neutelings Riedijk Architects and Bureau Bouwtechniek. Pictures: Gare Maritime, Architects: Neutelings Riedijk Architects. Photo:  Filip Dujardin.