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Re-building Brussels (1695-2025)

The construction sector as an engine for social inclusion and circularity

Salvaging materials in Brussels in 1930s (Source: Comité d'études du vieux Bruxelles © Bibliothèque artistique, ArBA)

The interdisciplinary research program Re-Building Brussels (1695-2025): the construction sector as an engine for social inclusion and circularity aims to deliver insights in the long-term dynamics that shaped the relationship between urban construction and its ecological and social impact. The project  examines the ways in which - and the reasons why - material reuse and the labour market have evolved in Brussels since the beginning of modern urban growth in the eighteenth century until today.

A key long-term academic goal is to detect how the local state can install a regime in which foundational sectors can work as vehicles for both a circular transition as well as equitable labour market inclusion. Through an analysis of the Brussels’ construction sector over the past 330 years, we can gain much-needed insight in the political, economic and social processes that shape the required conditions. This research will at the same time tackle contemporary urban challenges of the circular economy and the labour market as a stepping-stone for social mobility, reducing intra-urban inequalities.

The program is funded by Vrije Universiteit Brussel (2021-2026) and builds upon the VUB IRP programme (2016-2021) Building Brussels. Brussels City Builders and the Production of Space, 1794-2015, in which the three VUB research groups Architectural Engineering (AELA), Historical Research into Urban Transformation Processes (HOST; currently SHOC/Social History of Capitalism) and Cosmopolis – Centre for Urban Research (COSM) teamed up.

The interdisciplinary team of PhD researchers currently includes historian Karoline Da Silva Rodrigues (IRP), urban planner Jasmin Baumgartner (IRP, FWO) and architectural engineers Louise Huba (IRP, Innoviris) and Lara Reyniers (FWO), as well as post-doctoral researcher Matthijs Degraeve (FWO)..

Recent events:

2024 November: Research seminar Laborious work? Inequality, inclusion and circularity in the urban construction sector @ USquare in BXL

2024 October: Research seminar Life after demolition @VUB

2024 June: Thematic session The history of deconstruction, salvage and reuse in a larger perspective @ ETHZurich

2024 June: Research seminar Building policies, laws and regulations in construction history @VUB

2024 March: Research seminar Metabolic transitions in construction and the built environment (18th-21st centuries) @VUB

2023 November: Research seminar Construction Cultures in the City

2023 May: Lectures & round table @ RESET

2022 March: EXPO @ Sint Goriks Hallen (download digital catalogue)

2022 February: Symposium @ Hageltoren