Francesca Gualino Archives - Osmos2022

Rue Haute

Julia Rocha — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 09:48:16 +0000

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Rue Haute

Redevelopment of a social 400 unit housing complex in a dense inner-city neighbourhood fit for the 21st century.

Project: Rue Haute
Client: Logement Bruxellois | Brussels Wonin

Year: 2022

Partners included: archipelago, Tractbel, OFFICEU

Location: Brussels

Team: Adrian Hill, Francesca Gualino, Julia Rocha, Laurens Van der Cruyssen

Sector: Public space & community

Services: Facilitation of events, Governance models, User research engagement, Masterplanning and programming, Systemic and service design

Why? The Site Haute social housing site consists of a little over 200 apartments and once housed some 400-450 people. The eight buildings were built largely between the 1950’s and 1970’s and consists of 5-13 storey modernist style blocks surrounding two public squares. The site contains a number of outdated or under-used spaces. The complex is owned and managed by the City of Brussels’ social housing agency, Logement Bruxellois / Woning Brussel, and is one of various housing complexes in the neighbourhood under management by the housing service which is currently undergoing renovation.

In 2022, a team involving Brussels based practitioners from four practices (archipelago, Office U, Osmos Network and Tractabel) were commissioned to conduct a feasibility study.

What? The team were engaged to review a broad range of parameters such as: analysing buildings to redevelop or renovate, exploration of the housing units, identification of opportunities to improve the site’s environmental footprint, definition of the maintenance infrastructure, review of the public space around the buildings, exploration of the public services that could be embedded in the site in the future and finally a proposed longer-term development strategy. At the time that the project was launched, a considerable number of apartments had been vacated and many of the buildings were in poor condition.

How? Designing for a population of 400-500 people can be extremely challenging, especially for a site containing a diverse population. One of the key outcomes from the service design process is a collection of personas and user-journeys which are tools to help designers empathise with the end-users. Personas are a manifestation of quantitative and qualitative data, transformed into a profile of a type of person that could be an end-user.

In this project a total of nine personas were created. This gave the spatial designers a chance to ask specific questions that could be elaborated or role-played by the service designer. Through representing the personas, it was possible to consider nuanced design solutions.

More projects

Rue Haute

/// Project
Redevelopment of a social 400 unit housing complex in a dense inner-city neighbourhood fit for the 21st century.

Serre de Bockstael

/// Project
Developing community-based urban agriculture in Brussels.

Heist-op-den-Berg

/// Project
Engaging stakeholders in the urban study for a new unified administrative centre.

The post Rue Haute appeared first on Osmos2022.

Sonian Wood Cooperative

Julia Rocha — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 11:26:44 +0000

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Sonian Wood Cooperative

Developing a cooperative to keep the wood from the Sonian Forest local.

Project: Sonian Wood Cooperative

Year: 2019

Partners included: Centre d’ecologie urbaine; Walden project

Location: Brussels, Flanders, Wallonia

Team: Adrian Hill, Eric Haas, Francesca Gualino, Hanne Van Reusel, Marco Kooistra and, Stephan Kampelmann

Sector: Production

Services: Facilitation of events , Systemic & service design, Governance models, Business model & financing, User research engagement

Why? The Sonian forest produces some 20,000m2 of wood per year which is cut and sold to the highest bidder. While this may seem logical, the wood is largely cut and sent directly to Asia (mostly to China). Absurdly, furniture makers and builders located in and around the Sonian forest often purchase wood from Scandinavia, Canada or even Asia. The objective of the Sonian Wood Coop is to source local wood to the local market with the result of reducing carbon emissions, providing jobs and creating value in a local resource.

What? The sale of wood for export markets was common knowledge to both local institutions and researchers, yet little had been done about it. In this self-funded project, Osmos was developed everything required to launch the cooperative and make the resource attractive to the local market. This involved researching existing production chains, understanding local interest groups, developing businesses partnerships, sourcing start-up capital (such as a successful crowdfunding campaign), defining the branding and website, campaigning the media, exploring processing, marketing and selling the wood. Osmos was involved in all steps of the process.

More projects

Rue Haute

/// Project
Redevelopment of a social 400 unit housing complex in a dense inner-city neighbourhood fit for the 21st century.

Serre de Bockstael

/// Project
Developing community-based urban agriculture in Brussels.

Heist-op-den-Berg

/// Project
Engaging stakeholders in the urban study for a new unified administrative centre.

The post Sonian Wood Cooperative appeared first on Osmos2022.

Connecting Nature

Julia Rocha — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 12:41:53 +0000

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Connecting Nature

A European research program (H2020) developing nature based solutions: ‘bringing nature to cities and cities to nature’.

Project: Connecting Nature

Client: European Commission

Year: 2017-2022

Partners included: Trinity College Dublin | Horizon NUA | Stad Genk | Glasgow City Council | City of Poznan

Location: Europe

Team: Adrian Hill,Eric Haas, Francesca Gualino, Hanne Van Reusel, Julia Rocha, Laurens Van der Cruyssen, Marco Kooistra, Stephan Kampelmann and Toha de Brant

Sector: Ecosystems, Public space & community

Services: Systemic & service design, Governance models, Business model & financing, User research engagement, Training programs, Skills development, Leadership & management mentoring

Why? Cities are a source of huge environmental impact while also being vulnerable to increasingly extreme climate conditions. Nature can be a source of solutions and bringing nature into cities can also help dealing with numerous environmental, social and economic issues. Nature Based Solutions (NBS) is the term used to cover a wide range of nature related interventions ranging from eco-systems services (such as the value of wetlands) to biomimicry (like natural cooling systems). Questions are emerging regarding how NBS can offer economic and social opportunities that are more effective than conventional approaches.

What? This project brings together some 35 partners from across Europe (and beyond), exploring technical, financial, social and financial conditions for Nature Based Solutions. Osmos’s role is to help bridge between the academic partners, the SMEs and the eleven city partners.