Contribution - Marie Petrault
The project is part of the water purification plan of Brussels North. It is grafted onto the existing in order to create new relationships. It maintains the existing by adding various uses: a new public space for the inhabitants of Brussels, including a water leisure area immersed in an artificial marshy landscape. Recovering in an artificial way the essence of the lost place, will allow to welcome a variation of species, formerly present in the valley of Brussels, usually living around the marshes and the seine.
The sewage treatment plant, the recreation area and the marsh landscape are connected by a rhyzomatic infrastructure system transporting water to transform the linear flows into a loop, with less impact. The project moves toward a wider circle of relationships that are sustainable, interdependent, self-regulating, and promote conservation and recycling.
The marshy landscape is reactivated by the displacement of material, the soil, available in situ. By extraction, the negative space excavated hosts the marshes, and the full creates a new artificial topography that sometimes hosts ponds for humans or a biotope adapted to the marshy environment.
The process is natural, but it is driven by an artificial and technological framework.
The marsh water is fed by the clean water that comes out of the wastewater treatment plant, then reaches the recreation area and returns to the wastewater treatment plant. A sequence of artificial wetlands is therefore proposed, in which the filtering capacities of the marshes and the aquatic vegetation are studied. They are connected to a water flow system, by supply and suction, which interacts with the existing plant, the recreation area and dialogues with the modified topographic surface. In addition, the Senne is completely uncovered on the site in order to regulate the risk of flooding, but also to accommodate the biotope living on the running water. The piezometric level of the site is estimated at two meters but fluctuates according to the seasons and rainfall. The reliefs and basins formed by the extraction around the Senne allow to regulate the movement of the water in time.
The recreation area is conceived as a place of experience and immersion. The objective is to offer a new perspective of the land and the landscape so that the water comes to life naturally and welcomes a multiplicity of living beings, diversity and events.
This project is active, the flows and exchanges are constantly in motion. The project is to make the visitor aware of the potential of water to move all materials that are considered static and its ability to regenerate a polluted soil. Biodiversity is growing, welcoming more and more species. The project proposes to repair and develop a landscape that coexists, under the observation and active participation of visitors. The ground is reserved for non-humans and platforms connected by water conducting structures invite humans to experiment.
