Calls for more public space are intensifying in the City of Mechelen, where areas of water that could provide abundant space and beauty are often dominated by tourism, trade, and private housing developments, often excluding citizens and damaging biodiversity.
WATSUPS’ answer is a new, blue-green corridor along the river Dyle, designed using an innovative co-creation process that incorporates not only inputs from citizens, but also the perspectives of other living organisms. With solutions ranging from riverside art to biological shore-engineering and outdoor urban swimming, the project connects people to the water, to each other, and to nature.
About
The river Dyle is a green-blue axis that crosses the inner city of Mechelen. Over recent years, the riverside saw many improvements: walking and cycling paths; renovation of the quay walls; boat trips and other new recreational activities; cosy riverside restaurants and cafes; and a hotel on the site of the old city swimming pool.
But Mechelen’s population is growing, putting increasing pressure on its already dense urban space. With buildings and paving covering an increasing proportion of land, debates rage over the use of every square metre of remaining open space, whether it is for streets, car or bicycle parking, commerce, cafes, or playgrounds. In addition, past urban development projects and industrialisation have left water quality degraded and aquatic life greatly reduced.
Adding to this, climate change is also increasing heat stress and flooding risks, intensifying the need for softening, cooling and strengthening biodiversity.
This project aims to develop water as a common public space, counterbalancing the gentrification that transformation projects often risk causing. WATSUPS is showing how water in cities can become a common space, and how urban design can involve all citizens as well as the perspective of nature.
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The European Urban Initiative is an essential tool of the urban dimension of Cohesion Policy for the 2021-2027 programming period. The initiative established by the European Union supports cities of all sizes, to build their capacity and knowledge, to support innovation and develop transferable and scalable innovative solutions to urban challenges of EU relevance.
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