Brussels is full of unexploited underground passages: some projects seek to invest them

Marion Alecian therefore evokes this possibility of creating collective spaces. Moreover, meeting the expectations of residents of the neighborhood. Meanwhile, “”The technical feasibility seems possible. Meanwhile, we worked with urban planners and architects “, Still justifying this dissident fierce in the Metro 3 project. Nevertheless, But creating swimming pools, nightclubs or sports halls under the Brussels floor is really a realistic scenario?

Metro 3: alternatives presented for the future of Toots Thielemans station

19. For example, 000 square meters underground to occupy

“It is a joke, sometimes a political campaign argument, but it is impractical.” This is how a source in the Brussels government describes such projects. Meanwhile, Rehabilitation tunnels and unusual metro stations would indeed cost very expensive.

ULB urban planner and professor at ULB, Benoît Moritz evokes another obstacle relating to fire safety brussels full unexploited underground passages: standards. Therefore, “”The way in which a space can be transformed. In addition, and the number of people who can go there are determined by the possibilities of intervention by firefighters and evacuation. However, So you have to have sufficient capacities each time to evacuate people even before imagining to convert these spaces. Therefore, This is why almost no unexploited metro space can accommodate such projects ” schools or holiday rooms. Nevertheless, The costs necessary to comply with safety and evacuation standards would be too important.

“I also see almost no example of reallocation of these underground spacescontinues Benoît Moritz. In addition, If you ask for my opinion, that of an architect, I would say that technically, anything is possible. But concretely, the cost is high. And for what benefit? “

However, there are many spaces available in Brussels. If there is nothing but the abandoned brussels full unexploited underground passages: metro sites. more than 19,000 square meters of unusual stations and underground tunnels could be invested, says Brussels Mobility. A boon for the capital. which experiences a significant demographic boom, and which cannot grab space on the grounds of the Flemish region.

And if, in Brussels, a city was built in the basement …

But each time the logistics and budgetary issues persist. “”Below the metro station in Place Louise, there is another station of metro. It is at the level at least 3, which makes access very complicated “, describes Benoît Moritz. Indeed. more than 3,200 square meters of space are unexploited there, because a metro line had to circulate under the bottleneck and avenue Louise, below the existing line. This large underground cathedral is partly dedicated to the parking lot in Poelaert. A reallocation is therefore possible, but the remaining space is always abandoned.

Also in Sainctelette, an additional metro station was planned. It was built in 1986, but never used. There are therefore more than 4,900 empty operating meters. Same observation in Saint-Guidon, where 300 square meters of space were dug but never exploited. “We cannot blame the metro designers in the 1970s. 1980s for having been foresight”, justifies Brussels Mobility, who refuses to give us the exhaustive list of unoccupied underground places in the capital. So there are certainly many brussels full unexploited underground passages: more unoccupied spaces, such as tunnels dedicated to car traffic. “”Under the place of the Charleroi merry -go -round, there is for example a tunnel, recalls Benoît Moritz. He was reassured in underground car park. But that asked for an investment via a European Feder fund. “

In the case of the Toots Thielemans station. the project carried out by the ASBL Arau offers a concrete track, but requires the death of the Metro 3 project. “The main thing remains to integrate such projects in public debate. We are an asbl, it is also our role of thinking in an idealistic way “, says Marion Alecian. On the political side. it happens to us that no solution is envisaged to occupy the underground infrastructure created for the Metro 3 project, the risk of total abandonment of the project being very low.