On Thursday March 15th the third Urban Meeting of Atelier Productive Metropolis BXL will take place in Brussels.

With Maarten Hajer (curator IABR–2016–THE NEXT ECONOMY, professor Urban Futures, University of Utrecht) AND Jonathan Holslag (professor International Politics, VUB – opinion maker).

A city where you can enjoy working and living is something to strive for. This requires a spatial approach that ensures that economic activity once again is part of our towns and cities. How can designers and policy-makers contribute actively to making quality space available for our future economy? Can architects and town planners contribute to a more sustainable, urban-rooted and socially inclusive economy?

For more information and tickets see BOZAR.

^{picture by Bas Bogaerts}

THURSDAY MARCH 15 2016
Time: 20u00 – 22u00
Location: BOZAR, Ravensteinstraat 23, Brussels, Belgium
Language: English
Entrance: tickets available here

Atelier Productive Metropolis BXL
The aim of 'Atelier Productive Metropolis BXL' is a better match between the changing economy and the organisation of space for productive activities in the capital city's metropolitan area. How can spatial quality and the urban economy reinforce one another, and who creates the productive city? The Flemish-Brussels metropolitan region has a large number of low-skilled unemployed, while old industrial zones languish in the city and its outskirts. Atelier Productive Metropolis BXL proposes giving these old industrial sites a new lease on life by focusing on attracting innovative production activities. The city as a melting pot of knowledge and labour is seen as the ideal breeding ground, with opportunities for the Brussels Canal Zone and the adjacent industrial zones in Vilvoorde, for developing a circular economy, and for local assembly coupled with a global logistics system. The thesis central to the research of Atelier Productive Metropolis BXL is that the foundations of the productive city of the future can be laid in the metropolitan area, while at the same time achieving social, ecological, economic and spatial gains on both sides of the regional border.

Atelier Productive Metropolis BXL is a collaboration of the IABR, Architecture Workroom (AWB) and Brussels and Flemish actors amongst which the Brussels-Capital Region,Ruimte Vlaanderen, the Public Waste Agency of Flanders (OVAM) and the Province of Flemish Brabant.