Constructing a Common Vision: the Stadsatelier Oostende as a pro-active Tool for Quality in Urban Development

Abstract

Nicknamed ‘the Queen of Seaside towns‘, the Belgian city of Ostend was a hotspot of booming ninetheenth century international tourism and the favourite holiday location of King Leopold II. Today, it still is the go-to place for a sunny weekend at the beach for most, and the only Belgian coastal town with a certain metropolitan allure. And with this allure come metropolitan benefits and challenges. Ostend is the terminus of the Belgian railway network, it has a local airport, high quality cultural programming, and a (small) port, but it also struggles with poverty, unemployment and unsanitary housing conditions. About 41 square kilometers in size, the city has 72.000 inhabitants, a population that triples during the tourist peak season. One of the biggest threats it faces, therefore, seems to be the continuing pressure on the real estate market for second-stay apartments, and a fundamental shortage of affordable and attractive housing for young families with children. To tackle this problem, the city council in 2015 established the Stadsatelier Oostende (SAO) or ‘Ostend Urban Workshop’, an expert group with a triple mission: to work on a strategic development plan for the city, to provide the framework for and help realise innovative housing projects, and to supervise various strategic development projects for the city. The SAO operates on two complementary levels, developing a strategic vision for the long term, and starting up and monitoring exemplary housing projects on the short term. Working at different speeds, it ensures that there is constant feedback between these speeds in the core of its operation. During the first years the Stadsatelier also focused on methodical innovation, in search of a flexible set of instruments for urban development, moving from city-scaled studies to realtime building projects. It was chaired by myself from its creation in 2015 till the end of 2020. While it continues its mission today, this paper deals with the first five working years of the Stadsatelier and with my own experiences as chairman of a city advisory body that tries to combine quality control, vision development and negotiation planning on large and small scales.