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View all ArticlesCIVA Brussels presents “(re)compose the city” exhibition
July 11, 2018
The exhibition considers the period of reflection on the North-South Connection, from 1836 to 1952, as a town planning laboratory to turn Brussels into the capital of Belgium. The exhibition is based on several unbuilt projects that highlight this period, selected from entries of competitions, research works and other controversial approaches, preserved in the Civa archives.
The North-South Connection is generally seen as a trauma in the belief of Brussels denizens, a major error and the result of a lack of a strong-willed and coherent urban policy. The reflection on this railway layout linking the city’s North and South stations actually led to a broader town planning approach on the scale of Brussels – from its beginnings, in fact, in 1836, because this layout is closely linked to the creation of a station in the heart of the city. This aim persisted when construction work on the tunnel resumed in 1935, because the choice of an open trench required recomposing the urban structure over more than two kilometers in length. (more…)