De Saint-Géry at Grand Hospice: chronicle of an avoided Brussels-ization

In the aftermath of the Seconde Guerre World War, Brussels underwent major works intended to make it a modern city, a true international business center. This is the beginning of what would later be called "Brusselsization": the construction of office towers, urban highways, or even parking lots thus causing the disappearance of entire sections of the old urban fabric. We can today list the urbicidal plans that caused the destruction of historical buildings, sacrificed on the altar of the tertiary city. But what is less known are all the projects that Brussels was able to escape: developed in high places, having been the subject of significant funding and detailed analyses, it would take all the tenacity of the inhabitants, the work of associations, or the foresight of certain elected officials for them to be abandoned. With this visit, the ARAU proposes to retrace the history of projects that were – fortunately – not realized, which would have made three monuments that are now iconic disappear from the Brussels landscape: the Saint-Géry halls and the Sainte-Catherine church (threatened by a "mini-ring" project in the city center), and the Pachéco hospice (which was to give way to an apartment block). Three complex cases, with numerous twists and turns, involving multiple actors and, finally, three "urban victories" for the city and its inhabitants!