Ideas for Brussels: Healthy city = Happy city!

Is Brussels a ‘healthy city’? What does it take to make city better, more livable and healthier for its residents?
Across the world governments and developers are realizing that healthier cities are happier ones. We decided to share an interesting video by Monocle magazine which shows how this trend influences some of the other global cities.

Take a look at these three very different destinations and admire some of the best urban design initiatives. Let’s hope that this inspires our Brussels urban thinkers, city officials and developers to pay attention to the issue which will ultimately decide the future and long-term success of any city.

Urban transformations of cities

The rapid growth of world cities has not always resulted in the most qualitative urban environments. High-rise towers, car-centered infrastructure and dense urban planning heavily decrease the quality of life in cities. Now that citizens and governments demand rising quality standards, there is a potential for urban transformation. This requires new design processes and other competences from the stakeholders involved. Can Brussels build a track record of successful urban transformation processes?

Over the past thirty years, the growth of cities all around the world was spectacular. The relation between economic and urban growth was almost directly proportional. As a result, the urban fabric of many cities is strongly dominated by high-rises and car-centered infrastructure. However, these days seem to be gone. There is growing unrest about the quality of life among the population and citizens call out for change. This is why a growing number of urban thinkers and city practitioners focuses their attention to efficient and sustainable cities. This can be possible by transformation of the current stock and small-scale projects embedded in the existing urban fabric are therefore the main spearheads for the future. However, transformation in existing cities asks for a different process of design and execution.