CITYFORWARD
Historic studies and valorisation to guide the recoversion of the patrimonium of the European Commission Team ︎︎︎ ALTSTADT icw Joke Nijs, Alison Inglisa
Phase ︎︎︎ Complete
Client ︎︎︎Whitewood
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As part of the Cityforward programme, Altstadt carried out architectural heritage studies and produced iconographic and value assessments of several buildings in Brussels’ European Quarter. These included the Palmerston complex, the Brussimo buildings, and the Albert Borschette Conference Center (CCAB). The studies were commissioned in preparation for potential renovation or redevelopment.
The European Quarter emerged in the second half of the twentieth century, largely occupying two nineteenth-century extensions of Brussels: the Leopold Quarter and the Squares Quarter. Originally conceived as bourgeois residential districts, they were gradually transformed—particularly after 1958—into a dense office park dominated by European institutions.
In response to a plan by the European Commission to reduce and reorganise its real estate footprint, 21 office buildings were transferred to the Belgian State. These will be reintroduced to the market with the support of Cityforward, aiming to enable their transformation through renovation, reprogramming, or adaptive reuse. The broader ambition is to reintroduce mixed urban functions into a district that has become overly mono-functional.
cityforward - Albert Borschette
cityforward - Belliard - Trèves
Altstadt’s research operated across three scales: the historical development of the wider Leopold Quarter, the evolution of the individual building blocks, and the construction history of each building studied. These investigations invited a critical reassessment of post-war architecture in the area, including postmodern and brutalist examples—often overlooked yet increasingly recognised as forms of ‘young heritage’.
The project’s value lies in assembling a coherent iconography of archival material and in identifying the architectural and spatial qualities that might guide future transformations with historical sensitivity.
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The project’s value lies in assembling a coherent iconography of archival material and in identifying the architectural and spatial qualities that might guide future transformations with historical sensitivity.
cityforward - Ilot 130
cityforward - Palmerston
