Ville+Sambre+Ville. Re-programming the riverside.

Sustainable urban planning refers to the implementation of urban project through land use models that empower the existing potentialities of the site. Sustainable urban projects should consider the growing expansion of urban peripheries towards rural areas, the high number of unused buildings, the degradation of some abandoned areas, the location of infrastructures, and the preservation and improvement of the system of urban green spaces. The project presented in this paper, winner at Europan 11 competition for the site of Sambreville (BE), was developed in 2011 by the teamwork composed of Giovanni Aurino, Danilo Capasso, Laura Falcone, Anna Sirica and Bruna Vendemmia. The project site is 5 ha large and is located in Sambreville, in the south of Belgium, in Wallonia. Despite its proximity to the city centre, it shows the typical features of leftover spaces and hasn’t been touched by urbanization yet. This is probably due to the presence of two elements that acted like barriers, separating the site from its surroundings: the Sambre River and the railway. In a regional scale vision, Wallonia landscape is characterized by three intermingled elements: the linear development of urban settlements along the main streets network, the Third Landscape and the Drosscape. We can define drosscape as leftover spaces. Dross is an interesting concept as it implies the possibility to restore and re-activate landscape. Thinking in terms of sustainability and in order to tackle land consumption and sprawling urbanization, our project works with the reuse of abandoned areas and the reprogramming of underused infrastructure. This strategy allows to reclaim unused spaces to the community, saving land and creating less waste and unhealthy areas in the city. The project main idea is the creation of a public riverside park, beginning in the site and extending northwestward, along the Sambre River. On a territorial scale, the park will be the framework of an integrated system including woods, wild green areas, leftover spaces and residential quarters; on an urban scale, it will be a major urban attractor and will facilitate the visual and functional connection between the two parts of the city. For this reason, the project title is Ville+Sambre+Ville.