The perception of the ‘Groene Boulevard’, the inner ring around the city centre, seems to be negative. This is the conclusion of an extensive enquiry among citizens of Hasselt. In order to improve the situation, the department of culture of the city invited us to do an extensive research on it, to learn how and where improvements can be made.

Excerpt from atlas Dear Hasselt

“Now that we have the fact of very different identities, let’s take this as a starting point for the R70. No more broken promises, but a blank canvas, containing lots of possibilities, just as Deleuze and Guattari describe it. Now that’s a Boulevard!

The aim is to see these different identities as ‘Microcenters’, to define these even more and be aware of their range of influence, starting from their centre on the R70 as midpoint as shown just before. The R70 will connect these small cities or neighbourhoods just like a string of beads.

Having defined this, index cards will follow: how to deal with these small entities, from culture to infrastructure, from shopping to urban planning?

The first visible result of these cards will be the ‘R70 kiosk’, a re-interpretation of the former kiosk that has been mentioned a lot. In this case, not a physical one, but a mental one: an invitation to creators, makers, initiators to claim space (for example: 70m2) and develop a project dealing with the specific identity of the place, fitting in the ‘R70-programme’. To strengthen the beads and loosen the cord that chokes the city centre.”

 

Hunting ground: Hasselt (B)
Hunting period: 2015
Commissioned by: Stad Hasselt