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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Butterfly effect. Inhabiting post-industrial sites

subject

description

In the Fifties, Renaat Braem defined “jungle” the appearance of Belgian urbanization, where it is hardly recognizable a real shape or order unless its description of “diffused city”, following the infrastructural network. This is the “typical” Belgian way of settle in the territory, along with the highly infrastructural land and the heavy industries spotting all along the Walloon axis, the industrial backbone running east-west from Mons to Verviers. Nevertheless, now that the traditional industrial exploitation is near to an end, we can find a strong identity core in this landscape, anchored to the history of these places and to the practices that there used to be acted. Belgium itself can be considered as a total industrial landscape, strongly characterized by extraction towers, smoking chimneys, ateliers, electric power stations, terrils, that nowadays remain as both waste and icons. Starting from the case-study of Belgium, and along with the comparison with some Italian examples (such as Bussi industrial areas and the Sicilian eastern coastline) this paper will investigate the role of contemporary architectural project in dealing with industrial archaeological memories outside the compact city, offering possible strategies for inhabiting even a 120 km long route (corresponding to the Walloon axis): the challenge is to turn the relationships governing the diffused city into a key to revitalize huge abandoned lands. Operating by fragments of a whole, punctual projects will help the nature coming back to highly artificial lands and will mix new sustainable ways of living. Thus the aim is to trigger off the transformations and trace different possible scenarios, that will take place almost automatically, with no soil consumption and enhancing the existing resources. The hypothesis is that one single transformation, if well guided, can affect the metamorphosis of very far places, as a wonderful butterfly effect.