New Schuman: from a roundabout to a urban agora

Last Thursday, Pascal Smet, Brussels Minister for Mobility and Public Works released pictures of the future Schuman square.

Infrastructure works have a long history in Belgium. Following the epical renovation of Schuman metro station, the Brussels authorities decided to work on a new roundabout for Schuman in order to make it more friendly, attractive and inclusive. Schuman is indeed not very welcoming for both pedestrians and cyclists.

In a press release released last Thursday, Pascal Smet stated that “Schuman square is an example of what Brussels no longer needs to be. This square will be returned to the Brusselians and Europeans. It will become tomorrow a urban agora – a meeting place in a peaceful area”.

A pedestrian area will be set up from Cinquantenaire to rue de la Loi. The public authorities also want to make Rue de la Loi pedestrian from Cinquantenaire to Schuman, although cars would still be allowed to be drive from Cortenbergh to the roundabout.

A call for proposals was launched in 2015 and two architecture firms, COBE (from Denmark) and BRUT (from Belgium) have been selected to design the future square.

Additional reports will be drafted over the upcoming months and a permit application should be submitted by the end of 2018.

Brussels-Capital Region estimated that this project would cost about 7.78 million Euros (excluding VAT). The region will only fund the impact assessments and the management of the project.

The first works should be conducted in the first semester 2019. How much time will it take?