For years, Brussels’ Rogier square was a desolate place of unused spaces and ailing catering establishments. With their radical project, XDGA, Ney & Partners and Michel Desvigne are restoring both the square and the city to their much-needed metropolitan splendour.

Rogier Square in Brussels is not just any square. Once known as the Place de la Nation and serving as the forecourt of the former North Station, it was the gathering place for the first cars and electric trams, set amongst stately hotels with melodious names. The square pulsed to the rhythm of the metropolis and managed to reconcile the bustling city life with a human scale. The construction of the North-South link shifted the North Station a few hundred metres, creating space for a square with international ambitions. When the magnificent, 117-metre-high Rogier Centre – with its offices, residential units, theatre and sky bar – was demolished on a sombre morning in 2001, Brussels lost yet another piece of its metropolitan identity.