Thomas Jennen & Théo Collignon
Riv'2. ULiège (Belgium)
At the entrance to Liège, Chênée occupies a strategic position: close to the highway, serving as a gateway to the city and well connected by bus, train, and the RAVeL network. Yet the area remains marked by two realities: the devastating floods of July 2021, with up to 2.7 m of water in the streets, and an urbanization dominated by cars and soil sealing, which limits both resilience and quality of life.
Riv’2 transforms these constraints into a lever for urban renewal. The goal: to give water back its place while integrating high-quality public infrastructure as true pillars of sustainable development.
The ground floor hosts an Olympic swimming pool and a sports hall, forming solid bases on which housing rises. This layered architecture protects residents in case of flooding and ensures the continuity of urban functions. Multi-story parking structures, connected to other buildings by their rooftops, help reduce the space given to cars.
These rooftops become real suspended urban parks: green spaces, sports grounds, a skate park, meeting areas, and evacuation routes. They foster biodiversity, reduce soil sealing, and free the ground level for parks and water.
The removal of warehouses opens large pedestrian areas and high-quality public spaces, strengthening soft mobility. The scale of new buildings responds to the proportions of the new boulevards and streets. The redesigned boulevard prioritizes walking and cycling while linking to the existing soft mobility network. Its adaptation strengthens public transport and reduces car pressure.
This project embodies a resilient and sustainable vision: drawing on the memory of the floods, it reinvents a safer, greener, and more convivial urbanity. Chênée thus becomes a place of transformation where water, ecology, and collective life regain their full presence.
SCHUNCK cannot guarantee the correctness of content and expression. The participants themselves are responsible for their entries. The copyright of the projects underlies to the authors, any reproduction or use of the shown material is strictly forbidden.