Lietje Bauwens and Wouter De Raeve

the filmmakers

Lietje Bauwens and Wouter De Raeve work together under the name ‘431’. Since 2015, they shared an office space on the 25th floor of WTC tower 1 with a large group of other artists. They initiated the filmproject ‘WTC A Love Story’ to investigate if they could have an influence on the transition in the Northern Quarter by making a film about it.

Mathieu Berger

the sociologist

Mathieu Berger is a researcher and professor of sociology at UCL. As part of Metrolab Brussels, he co-initiated the collective ARCH, researching the qualities of hospitality of urban areas in Brussels, on the Maximilian Park, the Brussels North Station and, more broadly, the Northern Quarter.

Marie Anaïs Bluteau

the social designer

Marie Anaïs Bluteau works for Vraiment Vraiment, a design office based in Paris. She moved to Brussels to represent Vraiment Vraiment as part of the coalition of Lab North.

Kristiaan Borret

the Brusselse Bouwmeester

Kristiaan Borret is the Brusselse Bouwmeester – Maître Architecte of Brussels Capital Region since 2015. The Bouwmeester is an independent government official who stimulates and supervises the quality of urban development projects. Kristiaan Borret helped Befimmo and Up4North set up collaborations with the design and architecture firms that are part of Lab North.

Gert Bouquiaux and Pieter Torbeyns

the community workers

Gert Bouquiaux and Pieter Torbeyns work for the local community center De Harmonie, which helps elderly and those in need of care in the Northern Quarter. De Harmonie is part of the non-profit organization ‘Buurtwijk Noordwijk’, which was set up during the demolition of the Northern Quarter in the ’60s and ’70s to defend the interests of the inhabitants of the quarter.

Jan Denoo

the activist

Jan Denoo recently finished his masters Urban Studies at the VUB with a thesis on urban experimentation as a new mode of planning the Northern Quarter. He initiated the activist Facebook-page ‘Which Way is North’, which he describes as “an attempt to break open the debate around the Northern Quarter”.

Chaïma Ghaïda and Arnaud van Puyenbroeck

the social workers

Chaïma Ghaïda and Arnaud van Puyenbroeck are coordinators of ‘Projet de Cohésion Sociale Quartier Nord’. They assist the residents of the social housing blocks next to the WTC towers in organising neighborhood activities.

Werner Joris

the owner

Werner Joris is Head of Business Development of Befimmo, the real estate company that owns the ground lease of the WTC towers since 2017.

Mehdi Kassou

the spokesman of Bxl Refugees

Mehdi Kassou initiated the Citizen Support Platform for Refugees in September 2015, during the peak moment of the migration crisis in Belgium. The initiative’s history departs from the Maximilian Park at the foot of the WTC towers, where a migration hub emerged in 2015.

Sven Lenaerts

the consultant

Sven Lenaerts is a freelance consultant and program manager of Up4North – an association set up by property owners of the Northern Quarter, aiming to redynamise the area. Up4North initiated the coalition Lab North; a collaboration between Up4North, design agency Vraiment Vraiment, and architecture offices 51N4E and Architecture Workroom Brussels.

Ans Persoons

the politician

Ans Persoons is head of the political party Change.Brussels, and deputy mayor alderwoman of Town Planning, Public Spaces and Dutch-language Education and Affairs of Brussels Capital Region since 2018.

Freek Persyn

the architect

Freek Persyn is founding partner of the architectural office 51N4E. Winning a competition organized by the Brussels Bouwmeester, 51N4E was assigned 27,5% of the contract for the transition of the WTC-towers. The remaining 72,5% of the contract was assigned to the architecture firm Jaspers-Eyers Architects.