Redevelopment of the Place du Nouveau Marché aux Grains

The design is built around a landscape vision for the entire square. It integrates the basketball court in a creative way. It emphasises furniture for varied use and the creation of multi-purpose spaces. This keeps the square alive without overloading the space.

In addition, much attention is also paid to the climate robustness of the square: both in the reuse of materials, and in softening, greening and integrated water management.

Finally, an artistic lighting intervention is proposed that also creates the illusion of sunlight and shadow play at night.

Next steps

The City will organise an information session to present the competition proposal and the winning design office to the neighbourhood.

The design office will then further tune the project proposal with the neighbourhood and users to evolve towards a preliminary design that is widely supported. The City hopes to give final approval to the design in the autumn of 2024, after which the permit file can be prepared.

Participation and preliminary studies

In preparation for the External site architectural competition, the City had already taken several steps:

• A historical study tracing the history and the various developments of the square over the centuries
• A phytosanitary study showing that the trees in the square are in good health
• A participatory process with the residents and shopkeepers on the one hand, and the young people who play basketball in the square and go to school in the neighbourhood on the other
• On the basis of all these elements, the City of Brussels has explored different spatial variants in recent months

The participation process is available on the digital platform faireBXLsamen:

External site Nouveau Marché aux Grains (in French)