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Call for ideas

COMMONS JOSAPHAT “Specifications for the Commons to affirm a right to the city”

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Content

Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 3

General Description ............................................................................................................................. 3

A bill of specifications for Josaphat as a commons, a political debate on the commons in the city

............................................................................................................................................................................ 4

An inclusive and cooperative call for ideas ................................................................................................ 4

The Josaphat quarter, a complex and open object for a realistic utopia ............................................. 5

Planning ................................................................................................................................................. 6

Rules of the first phase : emerging ideas .................................................................................. 7

Who can participate? ..................................................................................................................................... 7

Expected results .............................................................................................................................................. 7

Items to be submitted by the teams ........................................................................................................... 7

Finissage of the first phase ............................................................................................................ 8

Grand Bazar ................................................................................................................................................... 8

Assemblage .................................................................................................................................................... 8

A workshop to question the Regional program ................................................................................ 8

Rules of the second phase: Josaphat as a Commons. Proposals for a project ........... 10

Who can participate? ............................................................................................................................... 10

Expected results ........................................................................................................................................ 10

Items to be submitted by the teams ................................................................................................... 10

Criteria for the evaluation of the proposals. ................................................................................... 10

Beyond the Call for ideas ............................................................................................................ 12

Practical information ................................................................................................................... 16

Permanent registration .......................................................................................................................... 16

For Phase 1 ............................................................................................................................................................... 16

For Phase 2 ............................................................................................................................................................... 16

Languages .................................................................................................................................................... 16

Author Rights ............................................................................................................................................. 16

Specific clauses .......................................................................................................................................... 16

Any remaining questions? ..................................................................................................................... 16

APPENDIX ......................................................................................................................................... 17

8.1 Appendix 1 – Regional program for the site ............................................................................ 17

8.2 Appendix 2 – Thematic Regrouping ............................................................................................ 18

8.3 Appendix 3 - Maps ............................................................................................................................. 19

« The commons include a multiplicity of goods or resources, from the most tangible –e.g. water– to the most

virtual–e.g. free software–while also covering things such as a city’s bike-sharing network. They are

characterized by the diversity in their modes of production and management, sometimes by a community,

sometimes by public authorities, sometimes by hybrid regimes. What matters is that the commons mobilize a

collective action stemming from the community or from citizen networks. Through the commons, users

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become decision-makers taking part in production and management. The underlying goal being ecological,

social and economical sustainability.1”

For a discussion of this subject, visit our blog: http://commonsjosaphat.wordpress.com

Introduction

In Schaerbeek, the site of the Josaphat train station is one of the last land reserves owned by the

authorities of the Brussels-Capital Region. The regional government recently approved a guiding

scheme, defining the ambition for this strategic site spanning 24 hectares, a surface of over 32 soccer

fields.

Commons Josaphat is an autonomous platform2 with no political affiliation, gathering inhabitants,

citizens, activists and organizations around the idea that it is possible to produce and manage our city

based on the concept of the “commons”.

As such, Commons Josaphat wishes for a transition for the Josaphat site, from the status of state

ownership to a commons. As the last large land reserve in public ownership, this site has to become

an example, to take distance from the model of a city dependent on financial flows and real estate

development.

The platform therefore launches a call for ideas, open to anyone, with the aim to mobilize our

collective intelligence and imagine the city, in all of its complexity, as a commons. A series of concrete

scenarios will emerge. These scenarios will, later on, be addressed to the citizens and authorities of

Brussels.

The call for ideas wants to offer the city, its inhabitants, and officials some concrete steps towards the

constitution of the commons. It will also offer new ideas for the distribution of decision-making

among the parties and people concerned by this future quarter: inhabitants of the neighborhood,

future inhabitants of the site, but also the people who will walk or work there, or the ones who will

behold its construction from their balconies.

General Description

For several decades, a global movement has sustained of inveiglement–or even destruction–of city

commons, of what should be managed in common. Brussels has been no exception.

1 Tine de Moor, University of Utrecht, professor "Institutions for Collective Action in Historical Perspective"

2 Commons Josaphat emerged out of a think tank on the commons (Festival of the Commons) initiated by city

inhabitants and city dwellers outside of any political affiliations. These people are joined by different

organisations such as : Brusselse Raad voor het Leefmilieu, Bruxelles Laïque, Centre d'Ecologie Urbaine,

City mine(d), Etats Généraux de l'Eau à Bruxelles, ULB Architecture Faculty, Inter-Environnement

Bruxelles, Habitat et Rénovation, la Maison de la Rénovation, Potential Office Project, Rassemblement

bruxellois pour le Droit à l'Habitat, etc. This list is in constant evolution, any organization wishing to take

part can contact Commons Josaphat on ideascommonsjosaphat@gmail.com

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The city is first and foremost the result of the action of a million individuals, more than decisions of

public authorities and a series of major investors. It is the product of this action that generates the

city and creates value. This value should be a common good, yet it is tapped every day by capital,

through the juridical form of private property and speculation.

Everywhere in the city, people gather to experiment new forms of “sharing in common”: Community

Land Trusts, Drainage basin comities, collective purchase groups, co-housing projects, self-managed

daycare centers, collective gardens, sustainable neighborhoods, local exchange trading systems,

cooperatives for energy production all emerge as valuable dynamics.

We consider that real estate value, soil, water, vegetation and so many other commons can call upon

other means of management than those centered on profits of the few.

To govern these commons implies a series of technological, social and cultural innovations. One can

only witness that representative democracy is not sufficient as a model for the governing of the

commons. State authority, in its confrontation to capital, is not able to sustain or guarantee the

creation of “commons”. New forms of governance are required to meet this goal.

However, democracy - as we know it, still carries spaces for innovation in terms of collective and

shared management. It is of utter importance to occupy such spaces to strengthen this democracy.

This call for ideas must be seen as one moment among a multiplicity of possible experimentations.

A bill of specifications for Josaphat as a common, a political debate on the

commons in the city

The Josaphat site is one of the last publicly owned pieces of land in the Brussels-Capital Region. As

such, its future affects every citizen. They therefore should be able to express their opinion on the

future of it.

This Call for ideas aims at creating a pool of ideas for the Josaphat site. It will result in the

constitution of an alternative bill of specifications, which will be presented to the public and to

executive officials in January 2015. Commons Josaphat will therefore keep voicing this alternative in

the forthcoming evolution of the Josaphat quarter.

The call for ideas being launched during the election period, it wishes for a public debate on

collective action, the commons and the right to the city. Commons Josaphat will animate a public

debate, offering the participants ways to situate themselves in relation to the commons, both in the

city in general and more specifically on the development of the Josaphat site.

The involvement of citizens in the future of our cities is an essential part of popular and continuing

education. Therefore, during the Call for ideas, spaces for exchange and learning (workshops,

lectures,…) will be organised.

An inclusive and cooperative call for ideas

The Call for ideas is open to anyone: architects and urban planners of course, but just as well any

citizen of the city and beyond with his/her own expertise to offer. By definition, this call must

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demonstrate our capacity to avoid exclusion of the most fragile among us. We therefore call upon

the teams to be as diversified as possible.

If traditional calls for proposals are of a “competitive” kind – setting up professional teams in

opposition to one another – this call, on the contrary, is “cooperative”. While its main focus is

supporting singular points of view, this call is also about strengthening complementarity and

dialogue between ideas.

The motive for entering proposals must be a wish to debate them within civil society and with a jury

of international experts. The call will therefore be organized in two phases. The first phase calls for

the emergence of the largest amount of ideas possible. The second phase will consist of their

elaboration into concrete proposals, by further developing the ideas and building upon their

complementarities.

The Josaphat quarter, a complex and open object for a realistic utopia

To conceive the future of a site the size of 32 football fields is an arduous task. No matter the chosen

orientation, choices will always rely on a certain amount of hypotheses. The call will rely on collective

intelligence to grasp the inherent complexity to the development of such urban entities. Together we

can imagine this neighborhood of about 2000 housing units, public spaces, streets, green spaces,

retail spaces, schools, production space, and conceive it all as being managed in respect to their

essence as commons.

The site is not an island: on the one hand it is integrated in the urban fabric of surrounding

neighborhoods, which it must enrich; on the other hand the territory of the Brussels-Capital Region

must face numerous challenges (demography, environment, work, mobility,…), and by its sheer size

and position the Josaphat site allows to meet some of these challenges. The Call for ideas could

demonstrate that the commons are able to respond to these in the benefit of all. It is therefore

crucial for the proposals to live up to these regional challenges.

At last, the site takes part in societal and environmental issues which far exceed its perimeter, and

which it will continue to touch upon.

Overlooking this complexity, the ideas and proposals must not take upon the totality of the

development of the neighborhood; no proposal will exhaust this complexity by itself. It is the

dialogue between these necessarily partial proposals, which will constitute the richness of the final

design of the new neighborhood. The Call for ideas must first produce the openings, which will allow

to conceive the transformation of this space in a neighborhood of the commons.

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Planning

Launch of the Call: April 24th

- Opening lecture & press conference

Political debate : May 2014

Phase 1 –Emerging ideas: May-June

- Team constitution and subscription

- Assistance in team constitution by Commons Josaphat (CJ)

- Planning of ateliers and debates

- Exploration of the site

Deadline for ideas: 18th

of June

Expo 1 : The Grand Bazar and city-wide debate on program and assembly : June

26th

– 29th

- Public exhibition of phase 1 ideas

- Debates about and based on the ideas

- Assembly of extended teams based on complementarity

Phase 2 – Elaborating proposals : July-October

- Team constitution and subscription

- Team work

- Continuation of ateliers, debates, and activities of CJ

Deadline – November 7th

Expo 2 : 19th

or 26th

of November, official public exhibition

Public jury November 26th

- The authors of the proposals will enter in debate with the jury members.

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Rules of the first phase : emerging ideas

Who can participate?

In consideration of the complexity and of the diversity of the aspects related to the project of this

vacant site, the call is deliberately open to the widest possible audience. It is open to any citizen

interested in bringing a contribution on the theme of the Commons, relating it to the site of

Josaphat.

Citizens of any origin, with any background and of any age: local inhabitants, architects, sociologists,

community based organizations, urbanists, designers, economists, anthropologists, citizens…

everybody is invited to imagine the future of the site.

Transdisciplinary collaborations, generational and/or cultural diversity, and groups characterized by a

variety of expertise (citizens and technicians for example) are strongly encouraged.

Groups from any country may participate, as long as documents can be provided in English, Dutch or

French.

Expected results

This phase should reveal a multiplicity of possibilities based on the concept of the Commons and in

relation with the site of Josaphat.

A different way of making and living the city as a Commons is a theme that needs to be addressed

through many different realms. The call will be open to any proposal beyond what could be proposed

within the more frequent frame of urban design or architecture, in order to give any citizen the

possibility to participate according to the forms of knowledge he wishes to transmit.

The proposals can be of a conceptual or practical order, or combine both of these approaches. They

can be presented in raw form or can be completely developed. They can be on any scale: the small

scale of a housing project, a public space, a community garden, a technological device for the

production of green energy, a system to improve the permeability of the soil, etc. They can also

address the site of Josaphat as a whole, for example a masterplan, the articulation of a green figure,

a financial or juridical model. The proposals can simply take care of the relationship of the site with

the neighbouring urban fabric; or they can consider the role of the site at the scale of the region of

Brussels.3

For this first phase the only requirement for the proposals is to imagine systems for its management,

based on the concept of the Commons4. For example: decision-based processes implying all the

concerned actors; agreed attribution of benefits; democratically defined, balanced penalty measures;

decisions made at the most direct level possible.

Items to be submitted by the teams

For this first phase the presentation of the proposals can take any form: texts, drawings, models,

videos, slide shows, books.

3 A proposal of thematic grouping is shown in Appendix 2. It is not compulsory to follow this regrouping, placed

here as an example of the multiple possible approaches.

4 You will find more extensive references on the subject of the Commons in the appendix.

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However, for the exhibition, which will conclude the first phase, the presented documents should not

exceed following formats:

- A surface of 1m2 (equivalent to 1 A0); and/or

- a volume of 1m3; and/or

- a duration of 5 minutes.

Any presentation must also be submitted in a digital format, or digitally documented so as to

summarize the idea and render the meaning of the main chosen format. Ex: stills from video to evoke

the original video; pictures to represent objects or models, etc.

Every project must indicate the title, the name of the team, the names of the members, and the

contact information of the spokesperson (e-mail and telephone). Every proposal must be

accompanied by an A4 page, summarizing the basic characteristics of the proposed concept.

Finissage of the first phase

Grand Bazar

At the end of the first phase, the proposals will be exhibited in a “Grand Bazar”. The exhibition will

engender the mutual contamination of the ideas, dissensus and debate, the desire to exchange

between and to mix different concepts, by producing new assemblages.

Assemblage

The first phase will not only show the diverse projects and ideas for the Josephat site, but it will aslo

provide a platform to re-assemble the teams according to emerging complementarities, in order to

meet the requirements of the research and to reinforce the specificities and common traits.

With the support of experts, the organizing Committee will analyze all the ideas and propose the

composition of new teams based on the mix of the participants. In light of the eventual difficulties

related to the organization and the functioning of these new assemblages, the existing teams will

also have the possibility to avoid any re-composition and simply further develop the idea submitted

for the first phase.

A workshop to question the Regional program

In order to reflect on the regional program, a short workshop will be organized. The debate

developed during the workshop might lead to basic guidelines for a final program, different or similar

to the original regional proposal. The main purpose will be to provide a critical analysis of the

regional program, which can be consulted by any team, and used as a fundament to defend their

proposals.

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Rules of the second phase: Josaphat as a Commons. Proposals

for a project

Who can participate?

Though it is strongly advised, the teams that submitted a proposal for the first phase are not

necessarily obliged to continue for the second phase. On the other hand, teams which did not submit

any proposal for the first phase also have the possibility to submit proposal for the second phase, by

working alone or in collaboration with other teams and meeting the expectations of this second

phase.

Every team starting the second phase will chose a representative to communicate with the

Organizing Committee. Each team will submit only one proposal.

Expected results

The proposals submitted for the second phase will have to be as developed and detailed as possible.

The goal is to produce a number of credible projects, thus showing the variety of feasible–though

visionary –options to develop a vacant site according to the concept of the Commons.

The proposals can grow according to the following orientations:

- Establishing a connection with other ideas (for example, a master plan able to integrate the

proposal for a community garden developed by the local citizens)

- Concerning different, complementary scales (for example: the concept for an auto-constructed

housing project is developed at the scale of a block)

- Further entering and deepening the details of their specific, original characteristics

- Tackling the challenges proposed by the program of the Region, and explaining any choice

consisting in a possible critical positioning towards the official program.

Items to be submitted by the teams

For the second phase, the format of the presentations must respect the following requirements:

- one or maximum two panels in A0 format;

- the panels must contain all the texts, schemes, drawings, pictures, etc, needed to provide a

complete and effective representation of the proposed idea/project.

All the documents of the presentation must be submitted in digital format.

Every project must have a title: the title should appear both on the panels and on the CD cover,

together with the name of the team and the names of its members.

Criteria for the evaluation of the proposals.

A jury consisting of international experts will discuss the projects, evaluating the potentials and

limits. Given the non-competitive character of the project, the Jury will not select a winner. The

proposals will be carefully considered according to the following criteria:

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- The level of precision and technicality in dealing with the theme of the Commons and the theme of

the city as a common;

- The level of detail and technical expertise of the proposal mainly characterized by architectural

objects and urban design strategies;

- The capacity to mobilize the energies and resources gravitating around the site and neighbouring

urban fabric;

- The redistributive capacity of the proposals, in terms of an improved and enlarged accessibility to

the resources of the city;

- The coherence among concept, case study/zoom-in/application and the proposed model of

governance.

The members of the International jury will be confirmed and announced by the end of the first

phase.

The Jury will gather at the end of the second phase, with the goal of carefully analyzing the

proposals. The Jury will take part in a public debate involving the teams and authors of the proposals.

The debate will have the aim to enrich all the participants and to involve the widest possible

audience in this scenario-building exercise on the vacant site of Josaphat and the city in general.

Based on this final open discussion, the Organizing Committee will take care of providing feedback to

the authors of each submitted proposal.

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Beyond the Call for ideas

All submitted materials and the discussions with the jury will constitute the starting point for the

formulation of a new proposal for the Josaphat site. This new project could lead to a pattern for an

alternative development, based on the idea of urban commons and the city as a common.

This work could result in model specifications for urban commons.

These products will be delivered to policy makers, public actors involved in urban development and

other citizens, together with the explanation of the process that led to the emergence of this new

project.

Commons Josaphat is committed to following up the results of the call for ideas and relaying the

actions that will arise from it to the government and among the inhabitants of the city. This

intervention aims to:

- change the actual official project into a more commons based project ;

- stimulate the Commons in Brussels public life, in urban projects in general, and among the

inhabitants of this city.

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Practical information

Permanent registration

For Phase 1

- Any person or team wishing to enter the process of the call must register before June 15th

.

- All documents must reach the organizers before June 18th

.

For Phase 2

- All teams must register and submit their documents by November 7th

.

Languages

All documents can be written in French, Dutch or English .

Author Rights

The participants to the Call for ideas retain their author rights, but give concent to the diffusion of

their work under licence under the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial 4.0 License. This

allows Commons Josaphat, as well as any other natural person or legal entity to make use of this

work, in part or in totality, in original or modified form, by giving credit to the author(s) and only in

the context of a noncommercial use. Any other use remains within the competence of Belgian

copyright law.

Specific clauses

All information provided by the organizers to the participants in the context of the Call for ideas must

be treated confidentially and will not be used for any purpose other than to call for ideas itself.

This call for ideas will not result in a contract for the realization of the project.

Any remaining questions?

ideacommonjosaphat@gmail.com

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APPENDIX

All elements in the appendix can be downloaded on our website :

http://commonsjosaphat.wordpress.com

You will also find references pertaining to the “Commons” as well as the existing regional project for

the site.

8.1 Appendix 1 – Regional program for the site

A program has been approved by the Brussels Government in March 2014, planning for 1,800

housing units, 2 schools, 2 children daycare centers, a sports hall, small-scale retail activity, offices,

businesses and a hotel. It has been considered as being the best answer to the challenges of the site

and the issues on regional scale. However it is not necessarily the only possible answer. In this call,

proposals can take distance from this regional program, but with the additional necessity to explicit

what regional challenges the proposal is tackling and how.

In order to allow for a debate on this regional program itself and the challenges it is expected to

meet, Commons Josaphat will organize a specific atelier, open to all, at the end of Phase 1 (see

planning). This atelier will aim at formulating a critical view on this program, by relying among others

on the ideas emitted in Phase 1. This debate will allow the different teams to better understand the

inherent issues of the site as well as their critiques, in order to better integrate them in the

reflections.

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8.2 Appendix 2 – Themes

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8.3 Appendix 3 - Maps

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BRUSSELS-CAPITAL REGION

JOSAPHAT

TT 3.5KM

COMMON JOSAPHAT /

SITUATION

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BRIDGE

RAILWAY

PERIMETER OF

THE JOSAPHAT ZONE PROPOSALS MUST CONCEIVE THE

INTERACTION WITH THE

SURROUNDING NEIGHBORHOODS

COMMON JOSAPHAT /

URBAN CONTEXT

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ACCES

LOCAL STATION

TO IMPLEMENT ALONG

THE RAILWAY

EXISTING SPORTS

FIELDS

INDUSTRIAL

BUILDINGS (ZONE WILL BE

CLEARED IN PHASE 2)

BRIDGE

COMMON JOSAPHAT /

EXISTING FUNCTIONS

RAILWAY

PERIMETER OF

THE JOSAPHAT ZONE PROPOSALS MUST CONCEIVE THE

INTERACTION WITH THE

SURROUNDING NEIGHBORHOODS

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EXISTANT

EXISTING

ACCESS TO

THE SITE

EXISTING

ACCESS TO

THE SITE

SLOPE

SLOPE

EXISTING

ACCESS TO

THE SITE

BRIDGE

COMMON JOSAPHAT /

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

RAILWAY

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