The authorities of Brussels-Capital Region, in close partnership with the European Commission and the City of Brussels, are launching a major competition aimed at defining a new urban design for the European Quarter. The area devoted to the competition includes the zone around the rue de la Loi, between the circular ring and the chaussée d’Etterbeek.

The goal of this competition is to define an urban design with a strong symbolic identity, featuring convivial public spaces, giving priority to non-motorised mobility and public transport, and providing buildings of high environmental quality and architectural value.

The project is in keeping with the objectives defined by the recent Master Plan for the European Quarter. It aims to transform the zone into an eco-district combining the first European and international administrative site in the Region, diversified housing as well as cultural and leisure spaces. In addition, it responds to the desire, as expressed jointly by the regional authorities and the European Commission, to reorganize the locations of the Commission on both sides of the Rue de la Loi while encouraging significant functional and social diversity.
This ambitious project of refitting envisages a rationalization and a concentration of the presence of the Commission along the rue de la Loi.

It implies that the office area occupied by the Commission in the zone would increase from 170,000 m² to 400,000 m². The idea is to encourage greater density in the zone via an increase in the floor/ground ratio, which rises from an average of 4.5 to 8.0.

Provisional timetable:

• Launch of the competition: April 3, 2008
• Submission of applications: May 30, 2008
• Selection of three to five participants: June 30, 2008 (based on the proposal of the advisory committee)
• Submission of the offers by the three to five participants: September 30, 2008
• Award of the tender to the winner: November 3, 2008 (based on the proposal of the advisory committee)
• Evolution of the mission: deepening of the urban design: November 15, 2008 - March 15, 2009

Terms and conditions of this competition dealing with its organization and its planning can be consulted at TED supplement of the Official Journal of the European Union.