Couloir du Bressoux

The Town Project

Anubhav Kashyap (MIA1)

The most intriguing part about the town project began with the site being located in another country.
A very normal phenomenon to citizen of Europe, but as a citizen of India it is quite unimaginable to
travel to another country in a span of 30 minutes. Europe in my eyes is a collage of many cultures
and languages, of which very few counties speak more than one language. Belgium being one of the
exceptions is home to three. Within it lies Bressoux, a collage of multiple cultures brought together
by immigration in the French speaking region. The origin of Bressoux was recorded as a hamlet1
that came into existence to help bridge distances for trade. Historically famous for leather and zinc,
even to this day some of the zinc mines are functional. It is a valley split by the river Maas that
has resulted in the region being blessed by these rich minerals and metals. The river starts in the
Netherlands and ends in France. This created easy mode of transport for resources (formerly known
as the ‘Vein of Paris’), another reason why industrialisation was quick for Bressoux and the province
of Liège.

Postcard showing Neutral Moresnet with the Dutch Queen Wihelmina, the Prussian Kaiser Wilhelm II and Leo-
pold II of Belgium, 1901.
https://www.the-low-countries.com/article/100-years-ago-tiny-country-neutral-moresnet-became-part-of-belgium

When it comes to people and culture the situation is that of indifference, mainly centered around the

like a curtain that separated the people of Bressoux from the people and places across the bridge. The
street that we based our project acted as a vein of life across the neighbourhood. One that was full of
life on one end due to all commercial activities and completely faint on the other. Within this region
were three churches. The most unique one in terms of space being the “Eglise de Dieu”, a church
for and by the African community in a building that was a warehouse. I stumbled across a website
called the ‘ibelieve-project.com’, where there were testimonies by current residents on the topic of
neighbourhood in Bressoux. In which they feel as though they are not integrated with the Belgians. A
clear indication of this would be the departure of the original inhabitants over time as more and more
immigrants inhabited the place. The most noticeable was the words of a Pasteur who felt as though
he can no longer feel home anymore.

As a student of interior architecture from a foreign nation my perspective tends to sympathise with

differ all over the world, but people are the same. They’ll gather in public if you give them a good
place to do it’, latched on to me throughout every step of this project. I believe that by creating a space

just Bressoux but all of Liege.

1. Hamlet: a small settlement, generally one smaller than a village, and strictly one without a church.
My motives are surrounded by mankind’s response to nature. The streets of Bressoux are
monotonous. They lack resting spaces and vegetation, it is a never ending maze of movements
drawing to and away from a central point. I believe that by creating a path surrounded by lush
greens along the existing architectural context can break this state of mind and draw people out of
their homes in hopes to spark conversations. A simple path to pass your thoughts through, to make
you feel like you have walked into a pocket corridor. An inviting space that one’s grandparents can
feel energised in, an adult can feel refreshed in and a child can run around under the warmth of his

reside in it and then to the people around it.