Units

HABITER Study center in Development, Territory and Landscapes

HABITER is the Study Center in Development, Territory and Landscape which, within the ULB's Faculty of Architecture La Cambre Horta, is engaged with the study of landscape, urban and territorial transformation dynamics in the North as well as in the South of the world.   Its activities are focused on cooperation and development issues at large, with an ecological and cultural approach to sustainability and context.   HABITER was created in June 2013, as a step in the development of research activities within the Faculty of architecture; a process started with the creation of the Center of Associated Labs for Research in Architecture CLARA in January 2011, and the unification of the two former superior institutes for architecture ISACF-La Cambre (founded 1927) and ISAI-Victor Horta (founded 1711 as Royal Academy of Fine Arts) and their integration in the university in 2010.   HABITER develops its research activities in close link to the two other pillars of the university's mission: teaching and service to society.   The members of HABITER explore the rationales of spatial and societal transformations of urban and non urban spaces, trough the peculiar tools of architecture, urban and landscape design, supported by the input of connected disciplines such as the Humanities, the Social, Natural and Engineering Sciences.   The works developed within HABITER target fields such as cultural heritage, urban services, landscape, energy transition, local governance, sustainable neighbourhoods, etc. seen as the indicators and drivers of the ongoing developments and changes within cities and territories nowadays. The approach developed within HABITER is context- and scale-specific ' from the architectural object to the urban, landscape and territorial systems ' and turns its attention to the existing or required socio-political, technical, and spatial devices able to guarantee innovative forms of development, in relation to the rising frames of reference in regional planning, governance, landscape and ecological urbanism.

Projetcs

2008-2013: Études sur les musées communautaires en Afrique de l'Ouest

Within the frame of the UE project RIME (Réseau international des Musées d'Ethnographie) directed by the Tervueren Royal Museum of Central Africa (partner: YVES ROBERT). Budget: 39.000'.

2009-2010: Projet «Espaces publics de Porto-Novo (Bénin). Inventaire, cartographie, vade-mecum, gestion urbaine et coopération «sud-sud» entre Porto-Novo (Bénin) et Lubumbashi (Congo-RDC)»

Cofunded by Wallonie Bruxelles International-WBI (partner: YVES ROBERT). Budget: 94.842 ', including 9.485' funded by the Faculty of Architecture.

2013-2014: Making of a «Heritage mapping of the Gorée island» and «Constitution of an heritage-GIS linked to existing databases», in relation to the XVth Francophony summit (Dakar, 29-30 November 2014)

Expertise (partners: YVES ROBERT, PHILIPPE LECOQ)