Politics, aesthetics, economics : imaginaries of urban public space and their reshaping through the transformation of Brussels city centre (w/ JL Genard) (original) (raw)

2020, Genard J.L., Berger M., « Politics, Aesthetics, Economics : Imaginaries of Urban Public Space and Their Reshaping Through The Transformation of Brussels City Centre » , in S. Vermeulen, A. Mezoued, JP. De Visscher (Eds), Towards A Metropolitan City Centre For Brussels, VUB Press, p.163-192

Since 2015, the transformation of the centre of Brussels into a vast pedestrian zone has given rise to multiple standpoints and controversies. These have provided an opportunity for debate not only regarding the pedestrian zone but also, more broadly, on views of the city that are defended. They harnessed urban imaginaries, visions made of what each and every one wished for Brussels, its public spaces, its mobility, its inequalities and its economy. This chapter analyses these imaginaries, which emerge as one examines the issues at stake. It highlights the three frequently interrelated views of public space that underlie the existing imaginaries, i.e., economic public space, political public space and cultural public space. It is probably in the pedestrian zone's configuration across these three spaces that lies the new centre's core challenge.