Report I: Introduction to the project. Brussels by us, collective ideas for a smart future.

This document provides a brief overview of the objectives of the Brussels by us project. The main objective of the Brussels by us project, which started in January and ended in December 2019, was to collect citizens’ opinions about on-going and future projects in three specific neighbourhoods in the Brussels-Capital Region through a mobile application supported with beacon technology and through a workshop-based approach. The three specific neighbourhoods were defined by imec in agreement with the State Secretary and encompassed the North zone, Central zone (around the pedestrian area in the city centre) and the University zone (ULB-VUB and U-Square). By setting up participatory processes in each of these zones, citizens and visitors of the Brussels-Capital region were offered the possibility to raise their voice and be an actor of change related to the quality of life of certain neighbourhoods. In the North Zone, the Brussels by us project focused on “functional mixity” and tried to find new opportunities to reactivate the public space as well as ground floors and roof tops with more diverse shops, services and activities. Currently the North zone is mainly a professional neighbourhood with little to no ambiance after working hours. During the project lifetime, Brussels by us collaborated with different stakeholders within this zone to find new opportunities to diversify the functions of living, working and leisure, taking into account diverse target groups. Next, the Central zone focused upon the commercial offer and design of the public space of main squares around the pedestrian zone in the city center. The pedestrian zone is reaching its final stage of implementation and is building up a totally new renovated area in the city center. With Brussels by us, the project had the ambition to collaborate with social and cultural stakeholders of the neighbourhood to design the public space together with citizens. Last, the University zone focused on the relationship of VUB-ULB and the city, and fitted within the objectives of the weKONNEKT program. The participatory processes were supported through a mobile application and beacon technology, which allowed for context-specific input of passers-by. Further, a specific living lab methodology was outlined to collect first ideas, wants and needs from citizens through a workshop-based approach. This methodology had a funnel-based approach, and iterated the outcomes towards final guidelines and (visual) prototypes for concrete changes to the quality of life for citizens in the Brussels-Capital Region. In this report, more information can be found about the project concept, the mobile application, the beacon technology, the Living Lab methodology and the project partners.