Charleroi’s territory is widely known for its industrial mining history and the outdated image of Le Pays Noir. Through time, this territory has been constantly claimed and reclaimed, spawning the idea of exploitation, occupation and regeneration. Different waves of transformation resulted into the surreal landscape in which industrial land, urban tissue and green-blue elements are constantly mixed. The condition of Porte Ouest as fallow land, as land in rest on the verge of a new cycle of transformations, is our starting point to re-imagine this site.

Three main actions are proposed to reconfigure the urban and territorial metabolism into new cycles for the fallow land of Porte Ouest:

re-CONNECTING. by designing a new link between Porte Ouest, Charleroi’s historical center, Marchienne- au-Pont, Monceau-sur-Sambre and its own ecological landscape and history.

re-GENERATING. by organising physical transformations as well as a changes in the perception of the site from grey to green. This develops through the reclamation and the remediation of soil, the purification of water and the on site recycling of different waste streams.

re-CIRCULATING. by promoting a new circular economy based on the life cycle of wood and the reuse of wood waste, biomass, for energy production and soil composting processes, as well as providing flexible spaces for new production, recycling and reusing.

Location: Charleroi, BE | Program: Masterplan for a new future of former heavy industrial sites | Year: 2019 | Client: City of Charleroi, Duferco | Status: open competition (Europan 15), 1st ranked | Task: Masterplan | Budget: not disclosed | Size: m² | Collaboration: Fallow + Cecilia Furlan + Sven Mertens + Benjamin Vanbrabant | People: Michaël Stas | Photographs: Fallow