Desired spaces

FUTURE SCENARIOS FOR A (NON-)BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Desired Spaces was launched in May 2020 by the ICA in association with the Centre bruxellois d'architecture et du paysage (CIVA) and the Vlaams Architectuurinstituut (VAi). We have launched an appeal to all those involved, designers and thinkers about space, to respond to the current crisis by addressing the spatial issues of tomorrow, and have created a joint website to bring these responses together: desiredspaces.be.

The circumstances surrounding the COVID pandemic in 2020 have made it more than ever a key moment to reflect on our built environment and adapt it to a way of life that has now been turned upside down. Our society is facing many new challenges, and place and space have taken on new dimensions. We have had the opportunity to stop and think about what is essential. What do we keep and what do we add? With an eye to today's situation, but also to that of tomorrow. To avoid going backwards and to move forwards. To give free rein to our aspirations. To reclaim space, in every sense of the word.

Desired Spaces opens up the horizons of the possible and invites you to think about these new spaces for living together and to sketch out a new built and unbuilt environment. We find ourselves at a time when the relationship between man and his environment is in a state of flux, and the need to do better is imperative. Architecture has a fundamental role to play here, and the diversity of the Belgian context is an undeniable source of inspiration.

Following this call, we received 180 contributions from architects, town planners, landscape architects, sociologists, artists, philosophers, children and citizens. The contributors were French-speaking, Dutch-speaking and international.

What is the cornerstone on which to build the way of living together that you aspire to? What form should it take? Anything is possible. As long as it expresses your utopia or, who knows, the reality of tomorrow.