City of Brussels supports six projects on gender and urban planning
At the beginning of May, the City of Brussels launched an open call for projects aimed at gender and urban planning. No fewer than nineteen organizations submitted proposals, six of them were kept and will start working on the theme this autumn.
Why gender and urban planning?
The public space in the city belongs to and for everyone, but in practice it is used by men[1] dominated. For girls, women[2] and persons who do not meet the classical cisgender norms, the public space can sometimes be unwelcome and frightening, and unsafe.
Urban planning and architecture are historical, and still, predominantly male affairs. This means that the city and the space are designed from a perspective, without taking into account the needs of women and girls. Many studies have pointed out that, due to the lack of a gender-sensitive approach, women and girls cannot feel safe.
Reason enough why the City launched an open call for projects this year aimed at putting forward a gender-sensitive approach to urban development. Nineteen organizations submitted a proposal. A jury represented by the Urban Planning and Equal Opportunities departments, conducted by an external jury member attached to the University of Liège, selected the final projects.
Authorized alderman for urban planning and spatial planning Ans Persoons (One.Brussels-Vooruit): “It is the time that we have a call for projects on gender & urban planning and we have many responses. It is clearly a theme that is ‘alive’. The It is those obstacles which we want to map and map through the selected projects, because the city belongs to everyone.”
the laureates
Girls make the City- ZIJkant vzw and Wetopia:
At the foot of the Kapellekerk trail, ZIJkant VZW is organizing a co-creation with a group of teenage girls this autumn. The girls live near it and go to school and will be guided by experts to think about the public space in the city: what do they need to feel at home? The place was not chosen. As part of the new circulation plan, and the deletion of one lane, an entire space between the Kapellekerk and the skate park will become available. The intention here is to carry out a concrete intervention by and for girls at the end of the workshops. There will also be a publication for gender-inclusive public space and a podcast about the girls’ experiences.
Stalingrad au feminin!- STALEM vzw:
In the southern part of the pentagon, women are generally less visible and present in the public space. With these words, Stalem asbl, the local trade association, opens the debate. In the first place, the association wants to enter into a dialogue with the women from the neighbourhood. In collaboration with Periferia vzw, a number of workshops are organized around the use or lack of public space. The final piece of the project will be a photo exhibition in the district of and by the women of Stalingrad.
Queering Brussels- L’architecture qui dégenre asbl :
From September 10 to November 21, 2022, the Queering Brussels exhibition will be on display in the Halles Saint-Géry. The exhibition opens up a balance and projects a future of the city of Brussels through a queer lens. The aim of the exhibition is to raise public awareness of the gender and queer dimension of architecture and the impact of LGBTQIA+ sexuality issues in architecture and urban design. A complementary program is also offered throughout the exhibition with city tours, lectures and film screenings on gender, the city and specific LGBTQIA+ issues.
Girls ‘n Play- RED/Laboratoire Pédagogique vzw & Alive Architecture:
RED/Laboratoire Pédagogique, in collaboration with Alive Architecture, is organizing a series of 8 workshops with a group of girls from Brussels. The workshops focus on the specific needs of the girls when designing public spaces. Their rights to safe, accessible and comfortable public spaces are central to this. The workshops end with an installation on a public space in the City and a documentary about the entire process.
JES Brussels vzw:
Jes Brussel’s Street Work team has been active around Anneessens and the Papenvest (Five Blocks) for over 15 years. Just before corona, a girls’ work was also started. With this call, this operation is given a new impulse. The aim is to bring the girls’ experiences and needs to the surface through participatory workshops with the group. The district is facing major changes. The renovation of the Five Blocks will be discussed in more detail and what impact it may have on the girls in the neighbourhood. The process problem with an intervention of activity in the neighborhood. The organization hopes that this will lower the threshold for using public space in different ways in the future.
Office of City Collectors – Lilith & Mo vzw :
For a week, the Bureau of City Collectors will settle in a square in the city. The office invites local residents, passers-by and other curious people to explore the square. By means of small assignments, we look in a playful and playful way into how men and women use the square and, above all, why. Where to settle the desk is a surprise.
Lydia Mutyebele Ngoi, Equal Opportunities Alderman, concludes: “Urban planning ensures a harmonious layout of it and, to a certain extent, plans its evolution. I am pleased that my colleague supports the activities and supports proposed through these projects to improve the Brussels to “de-masculine” public space. “LGBTQIA+ of the city.”