Towards Water Sensitive Co-Design in Brussels: The Forest Case Study

Studies on the model Integrated Water Management (IWM) have extensively explained that a sustainable system of water has to be ‘in tune’ with the local ecosystem. The integrated management of water starts bottom-up and makes use of the context. Water resources, spatial conditions, and individuals and/or communities are key ecosystem’s determinants to be engaged. If design methods like the Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) provide tools to integrate both local water resources and spatial conditions in the urban context, how to actually mobilize individuals and/or local communities has still to be further understood. It implies a true process of democratization, accountability, and citizens’ empowerment. In Brussels, an emerging Water Sensitive Urban Co-Design (WSUCD) process is leading the shift towards a more integrated management of water. Inhabitants, developers and institutions are actually engaged in the process of change that erodes the thick inertia manifested by the dominant socio-technical regime. In particular, the participatory design experience of Forest, a neighborhood of the Brussels Capital-Region (BCR), discloses a different relation between designers and citizens who are claiming for a more local-based management of water. This paper critically discusses the case of Forest stressing the potential synergies between water sensitive design and co-design, a process where citizens can have a proactive role.