In the 1960s, the mixed urban fabric of the nineteenth century began to decline amid the exodus of craft industries to outlying areas. Today, the opposite momentum is picking up speed, with the gradual reintroduction of productive activities in residential areas. This dynamic is accompanied by the emergence of new urban typologies, like the project by Générale for Brasserie de la Senne at Tour & Taxis.

Over the past fifteen years, the redevelopment of the Tour & Taxis site has created a hybrid urban landscape with multiple functions. New housing projects stand alongside the commercial spaces, offices and productive activities that still exist along the canal or are emerging in this new area. A string of attached industrial buildings has recently sprung up along the avenue linking the quay of the Canal to the Tour & Taxis park, making up an unbroken building line in interaction with the public domain. This new urban model replaces the late-twentieth-century typology of standardized, opaque buildings that were isolated in outlying districts.