Master Class 120% Brussels

14
A Laboratory on the
Architecture of the City
An urban shift
The 21st century is often called
the “century of the city”. 50%
of the world population today
lives in cities, a figure that is
to reach about 80% by 2050.
In Europe, this percentage is
even higher as since the end of
the 1990’s, the European city is
growing again. The population
of the Paris metropolis grew
by 6% between 1999 and 2007,
while London’s population grew
by almost 5% between 2001
and 2006. Madrid even saw its
population grow by about 19%
between 2001 and 2010.
In Brussels, these
demographic questions have
only recently come to the
attention of the wider public.
The assumption long was
that Brussels continued to
lose inhabitants and that the
population had peaked about
20 years ago. However, in
2008, demographic growth in
Brussels was twice as high as
elsewhere in Belgium. Brussels
is thus one of these European
cities subject to a double,
contradictory tendency.
First, population
growth has been no less than
spectacular in the last decade.
From 2000 to 2010, the city has
welcomed about 130.000 new
inhabitants, a growth of 13%.
If this pace remains constant—
and many previsions indicate
it is rather likely to increase
even more—population will
grow by another 130.000
inhabitants by 2020. The
principal causes for this growth
are high birth and immigration
rates. Both of these factors
manifest themselves most
clearly in the western, former
industrial neighborhoods,
where the most fragile
population groups are living.
Today housing discrepancies