The brief from the local council in Ixelles (Brussels) was: give young people a place in our neighbourhood. But how do you design a space for teenagers in a challenging, densely populated part of the capital? Do they even want a visible, clearly defined location? Wouldn’t they rather hang out in undefined, preferably hidden spots? And if they are allocated a space after all, what exactly should that space offer? Carton123 took on this formidable challenge; together with Jes vzw, they surveyed local young people and built the Malinard youth centre, which opened in the spring of 2021.

Over the past ten years, the Ixelles municipal council has already made several attempts – as part of the Malibran Neighbourhood Contract – to respond to local young people’s demand for more space to play: there was the creation of a small playground in Korte Malibranstraat (L’escaut, 2010) and the construction of a socio-cultural community centre in Damstraat (Ledroit Pierret Polet – Label, 2014). But neither of these spaces really took the target group – teenagers – into account.