Urban studies, (urban) sociology, social and cultural geography, urban and spatial planning, utopian studies, philosophy, political sciences

The importance of urban projects is central to contemporary urban regeneration and urban imagining. Though much of the urban planning in Brussels lacks a profound understanding of the development processes of such an 'urban vision'. A first objective is to focus on this imagining process through the development of an extensive conceptual and analytical framework to qualify and legitimize 'urban projects'. The concepts utopia and heterotopia give an interesting point of view to coin the relationship between the abstract character of the impossible utopia and more pragmatic descriptive elements of a 'good' urban project and a powerful urban vision. This connection can be described by three interesting turning points (see former research). The fine-tuning of these turning points and development of indicators for a 'good' urban project is central to the first part of the research.
A second objective is to develop and test a qualitative assessment instrument for such urban projects in Brussels. The qualitative research for the conceptual framework will be developed through extensive literature and desktop research, spatial analysis and interviews with developers and policymakers. The cases will be selected from the 'strategic zones' proposed by the Ministery of the Brussels Region .