Bloc Paysage, vvv architecture urbanisme, Pauline Varloteaux and Pauline Cabrit teamed up to submit a competition design to the Brussels Government Architect for four pocket parks with the motto ‘vers des communs métropolitains’ (towards metropolitan commons). The team of young architects and landscape architects realized four small parks as green stepping stones along the railway track between Place Emile Bockstael and the Canal.

In the context of the Bockstael sustainable neighbourhood contract, the city of Brussels was looking for a project that would create a green, recreational connection between Place Bockstael and the Canal. The zone feeds into the greater park system that is formed by the Parc de la Senne, Parc L28 and Tour & Taxis. Four wastelands along the railway track that used to be owned by Belgium’s national railway company and Infrabel were acquired by the city of Brussels. The competition of the Brussels Government Architect prescribed that each of the four sites should have an identity of its own, dependent on the site’s characteristics, and stressed that the involvement of the local residents was a condition for the creation of the pocket parks. In 2015 the team built up around VVV and Bloc Paysage won the competition to activate the friches, residual urban spaces that were previously inaccessible.