Parvis de Saint-Gilles

Bureau Bas Smets

“Historic architecture and contemporary urban life come first in Bas Smets’ elegant reconfiguration of the tangle of streets that form the setting for both a market and a cluster of cafés. The design is strong enough to lend the space coherence without being intrusive.” Deyan Sudjic

A public plaza

— Eline Dehullu

The municipality of Saint-Gilles lies on a gentle slope in the south of Brussels. The Parvis has always been its main square, where a well-known food market is organized four days a week. Cars were banned some years ago, and the aim of the international design competition was to transform this former large street into a public plaza. The Parvis lies at the intersection of two interesting urban systems. On the one hand there is an axis of nineteenth-century monuments; on the other there is a network of smaller parks. The design for the Parvis reinforces this dual system. The church has been given a central space on the plaza, while new trees establish a connection with the adjacent parks.

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  • Bureau Bas Smets

  • http://www.bassmets.be

  • BBS214 SAINT-GILLES PARVIS

  • Saint-Gilles, Belgium

  • Square

  • Competition

  • Municipality of Saint-Gilles

  • 17/06/2018

  • 6 500 m²

  • 1 773 453,03 €

  • Bureau Bas Smets

  • Bgroup Greisch

  • Nutons s.a.

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