The Charter

Our short-term commitments

We realize that our long-term vision, the Manifesto, will require alignment with other stakeholders, therefore we decided to commit to a number of practical and tactical urban actions that will foster material change in the European District in the short term, whilst supporting our long-term vision

Feasibility & Impact

To assess the feasibility of our recommended short-term actions, we conducted an audit of office buildings within a pilot area stretching from Square de Meeûs to Square Frère-Orban. A total of 21 office buildings were visited, representing 350,000 square meters (or 10% of the total estimated office footprint of the European District).

Following the positive results and recommendations of this audit, it has been agreed to extend the program to the entire Leopold district.

The 4 key actions of our Charter

01 / Increase Functional Mix

02 / Create Greener Space

03 / Support Soft Mobility

04 / Deepen European & Cultural Identity

Activate Ground Floors

Where possible, support the infill of the ground floors with open functions (retail, café, bike repair, art, coworking, places of dialogue and encounter, etc.) At least, ensure they are transparent and interact at street level.

Soft Mobility Friendly Buildings

Promote active mobility by ensuring all types of soft mobility users are welcome (including visitors), from facilities provision to services and social activities in favor of active mobility.

Open Courtyards

Where possible, open inner courtyards, terraces, and increase green surfaces at street-and roof-level. Create new use cases for courtyards and infill with public uses.

Green Roofs

Where technically feasible, create green rooftops accessible to occupiers, or alternatively convert to extensive or intensive green surface.

The pilot area audit

The results of the pilot area audit show that our identified actions could have material positive impact on the district.

Ground Floor Transparency

46% of the façade surface analyzed have the potential to be made visually open.

Ground floor infill

65% of the buildings analyzed have no ground floor infill activation.

Greening the roofs

31% of roof surface analyzed have the potential for greening.

Inner courtyards

4 buildings with an inner courtyard have the potential to be made accessible to the public.

Soft mobility facilities

76% of buildings have average or poor facilities. Only 4 buildings have good facilities to support the use of soft mobility.

Shared mobility services

Only the buildings occupied by the EU Commission (representing 53%) offer single-mode shared mobility services (bikes). The other buildings do not have any services in place.