THE STADSATELIER OOSTENDE AS A PRO-ACTIVE TOOL FOR QUALITY IN URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

In 2015 the city council of Ostend (BE) established the Stadsatelier Oostende (SAO) or “Ostend Urban Workshop”: an expert group that was asked to work on a strategic development plan for the city, to provide the framework for a number of innovative housing projects, and to supervise various strategic development projects for the city. For this purpose, the SAO set up a double, complementary operation drawing up a strategic development vision for the long term, and starting up and monitoring concrete building projects. The SAO works at different speeds, but ensures that there is constant feedback between these speeds in the core of its operation. This operation is outlined and documented in the Global Strategic Development Plan (Globaal Strategisch Ontwikkelingsplan or GSO). The long-term vision of the GSO was fed by atelier sessions with stakeholders, and research by design that was done by external offices or by the members of the SAO themselves. At the same time, exemplary projects were initiated that translate the vision into a specific context and put it into practice. The Stadsatelier Oostende focuses on methodical innovation, in search of a flexible set of instruments for urban development. The goal of my presentation is to explain and illustrate this quest, as synthesized in the GSO, on the different levels and scales on which the SAO operates, moving from city-scaled studies to an exemplary housing project in the Stene district (Zilverlaan), that combines private, social and assisted housing programs, producing a shared publicly accessible park.