Koenraad Danneels

KU Leuven | ku leuven · Faculty of Architecture

During and after the First World War, Belgian landscape architect and planner Louis Van der Swaelmen attempted to develop a ‘sociobiological’ theory and practice of landscape architecture, urbanism and urbanization. Both in his writings and designs he combined biological approaches with sociopolitical concerns. In this article, I will focus on the...

Today, design disciplines such as ecological urbanism aim at fusing natural and social sciences to restore the equilibrium between social and natural systems, and in extenso the urban and natural environment. But recent literature in urban political ecology and urban history has shown how this socioecological approach is generally stripped down to...

This article contributes to the genealogy of green infrastructure design by shifting the focus from science and technology to include broader societal, political and aesthetic issues, using a critical historical analysis of landscape design. We examine post-war Belgian green infrastructure projects by landscape architect René Pechère (1908–2002) to...

In this contribution, I explore compensation landscapes as a concept through which we can question the nature of ecological urbanism today, as an alliance of environmental degradation, urban development and landscape design. In urbanism and landscape studies, there is currently almost no debate on the spatial dynamics created by the compensation of...

As a response on the rapid global degradation of biodiversity and in the slipstream of the revaluation of the urban living environment, in recent decades many Western European cities have developed a biodiversity strategy. These strategies focus on the realisation of ecological corridors and the protection and strengthening of existing plant and an...

Today, urbanism and urban design are engaging in a productive alliance with the natural sciences, leading to the international rise of ecological forms of urbanism. In the Brussels region, socio-ecological approaches are rethinking the urban landscape, and the turn towards landscape design as well as metabolic schemes and circular economy goals sho...

This chapter, co-written by Koenraad Danneels, Greet De Block, and Bruno Notteboom, examines the influence of Belgian natural scientists and urban designers in creating a socio-environmental perspective on urban resilience. The first part of the chapter looks at the idea of the ‘sociobiological city,’ which was developed by landscape architect Loui...

In this article, a landscape drawing of Brussels by René Pechère (1965) is read as a strategic exercise to rethink the Brussels region. It discusses the capacity of such a drawing to speculate on the existence of a valley landscape, and how that landscape can be the basis for an urban project.

This chapter, co-written by Koenraad Danneels, Greet De Block, and Bruno Notteboom, examines the influence of Belgian natural scientists and urban designers in creating a socio-environmental perspective on urban resilience. The first part of the chapter looks at the idea of the ‘sociobiological city,’ which was developed by landscape architect Loui...

Urban Resilience is seen by many as a tool to mitigate harm in times of extreme social, political, financial, and environmental stress. Despite its widespread usage, however, resilience is used in different ways by policy makers, activists, academics, and practitioners. Some see it as a key to unlocking a more stable and secure urban future in time...

EN/ In this article, the case of the Ghent Slaughterhouse (1857) is mobilised to show how changing ideas on 'good' and 'bad' nature restructured the food supply of the city. It retraces the economic, political and societal reasoning behind the decision to rethink the urban metabolism through the introduction of new legislation and the construction...

Koenraad Danneels, Griet Juwet en Dieter Bruggeman, "Stedelijk Metabolisme. Van theoretisch concept naar tastbare praktijk", AGORA, vol. 34, n. 4, 2018, p. 4-7. ‘Stedelijk metabolisme’ vindt als concept steeds meer zijn weg naar de stedenbouwkundige praktijk in België en Nederland. Hoewel dit begrip zelf ongedefinieerd lijkt te zijn in de praktijk...

‘Stedelijk metabolisme’ wordt vaak bekritiseerd omdat het een theoretisch concept zou zijn dat geen rekening houdt met de inbedding van stromen en infrastructuur in een concrete ruimte. Toch toont het werk van Brussels ecoloog Paul Duvigneaud dat de totstandkoming ervan in de stadsecologie veel complexer is: zowel via het inbrengen van abstract cij...

During the immediate aftermath of the German invasion in Belgium in 1914, Belgian architectural and landscape professionals organized themselves in unoccupied countries to structure a common agenda to rebuild Belgium. During this exile period, Louis van der Swaelmen, a landscape architect and self-proclaimed urban planner, wrote a book on the recon...

On January 2016, a joint consortium of the Flemish and Brussels Chief Architects published Metropolitan Landscapes. Espaces ouvert, base de développement urbain/Open ruimte als basis voor stedelijke ontwikkeling. Based on the assumption that open spaces have the potential to spur and structure future urban development and surpass administrative bou...

Today, design proposals like ‘Metropolitan Landscapes’ and ‘Metabolism of the Brussels Region’ aim at fusing natural and social sciences to restore the equilibrium between social and natural systems, and in extenso the urban and natural environment. However, this socio- ecological approach, typical of ecological urbanism, is often stripped down to...