One might wonder why it is necessary to publish a landscape quality plan for a municipality in the Campine region such as Nijlen. Surely it should go without saying that every municipality has a spatial assessment framework in place to evaluate planning projects and planning permission applications? Unfortunately, this is not the case.

The title of this article suggests that, through this publication, plusoffice architects has a higher purpose. The starting point, however, is a highly contextualised analysis of a village comprising three hamlets, situated in the valleys of the Grande and Petite Nèthe. The clear picture reveals both the sensitive issues and the potential generated by the village’s transformation: a village square designed for cars, vulnerable road users who have nowhere to go, a proliferation of flats, buildings with backsides in a sorry state, further housing developments, but also a village close to the railway line flanked by a cycle path, or slow-traffic routes just waiting to be rediscovered.