Cédric Dries
BX Nord. AAM (The Netherlands)
Brussels faces a severe shortage of public swimming pools, a need that is especially pressing in the North District. Around Brussels North Station, streets are marked by drugs, prostitution, violence, homelessness, and social tension. The area is frequently in the media, reflecting its challenges. Within this context lie two contrasting neighborhoods: Noordwijk, with mostly large-scale office blocks, and Brabantwijk, with small, dense streets and ongoing social problems.
Separating these neighborhoods is a six-and-a-half-meter-high plinth carrying the railway tracks. The project proposes a soft, human-scale passage through the plinth, connecting the residential area of Noordwijk with the Brabantwijk. Along this connection, neighborhood-oriented functions - shops, a skate park, and communal spaces - activate the plinth and encourage daily interaction, leisure, and shared activities. In the longer term, this passage is designed to extend toward a future sports tower on a vacant site in Brabantwijk, reinforcing the connection between the two neighborhoods.
At the heart of the intervention lies a public swimming facility: a 50-meter pool, diving pool, children’s pool, and wellness areas. Swimming pools are particularly effective in socially challenged neighborhoods: they create routine, foster encounters across different social groups, encourage informal social supervision, and provide a stable anchor in daily life. This facility responds directly to Brussels’ pressing shortage while introducing a new social and spatial layer to the district.
Embedded beneath the tracks, the plinth and passage form a vibrant public stage. The intervention bridges communities, adds life to a neglected urban edge, and gives the district a new social dimension. Here, the pool offers residents from both neighborhoods a space to meet, swim, learn, and enjoy shared activities, creating new social connections in a context that previously separated them.
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