Tools for Togetherness. Prospection, reflection and exploration of public and collective spaces in Flanders.

While dispersed territories make up a majority of the recent Flemish urbanisation, they are seldom interpreted as a city. Moreover, in mainstream discourses dispersed territories are considered as a spillover of the traditional city and conceived either as not urban enough or a loss of rural and natural values and thus to be remediated. Interpreting dispersed territories as an autonomous urban condition however enables to valorize existing qualities in these territories such as the proximity of urban resources, the high quality of life or the abundancy of open space, all of them hardly to be found in the traditional city.In this interpretation the public and collective space play a crucial role. These are the places were people meet, were collective challenges can be tackled (water management, mobility, ecology and biodiversity,…) and that represent in a symbolic way how people live together and attribute to society. This research elaborates on these ‘tools for togetherness’ and identifies, challenge and explores the potential of public and collective spaces in dispersed territories.

Keywords:sprawl, public space, colletive space

Disciplines:Environmental and sustainable planning, Urbanism and regional planning, Urban and regional design