As part of their welfare state regimes, local administrations have realised in the past a variety of infrastructures for the health and well-being of their inhabitants. Not only hospitals or housing but also parks, cultural and community centres, sports and recreational facilities. Their effectiveness is challenged today by interlinked dynamics of real estate speculation, internal and external migrations, growing precarity and environmental challenges.
In response to this, community-based initiatives have emerged that reclaim vacant buildings and sites and experiment with site-specific infrastructures of care and solidarity, filling the infrastructural voids ‘left behind’ by an overstretched public welfare state. These community welfare mixed infrastructures -or WELCOMINs- are laboratories for radical urban transformation and individual and collective emancipation. Going beyond single-issue politics and policies that prioritize the needs and rights of some groups over others, they feature mixed-use programs, hybrid spatial morphologies and horizontal forms of governance.
Funded by Innoviris in the framework of the Prospective Research programme, the WELCOMIN project will investigate community welfare mixed infrastructures in the Brussels Capital Region under different demographic and vacancy conditions represented by three scenarios: the Eco-Resilient City, the Fluid City and the Breathing City.
Caring for Space, Spaces for Caring is a photographic and video exhibition that captures how communities across Europe reclaim vacant buildings and abandoned sites as spaces of care, creating urban commons that are both generative and resilient. From Athens to Brussels, from refugee shelters in Bosnia to artist compounds in
Caring for Space, Space for CaringReclaiming care in times of welfare privatization The exhibition Over the past 15–20 years, an increasing number of vacant buildings have been reclaimed by and for communities through various policies, local agreements, and initiatives—whether professionally coordinated or spontaneously led by engaged citizens. Often referred to
On February 5th 2025, we hosted our second Policy Lab around The Cooperative City, a key moment within the WELCOMIN research project where we collaborate with various actors of the urban field to build our research. We were hosted by Bruxelles Environnement, and we brought together various participants to explore innovative
Brussels Center For Urban Studies‘ yearly conference cycle StadsSalonsUrbains is back! This year, we ask ourselves: What do citizens need to live the lives they desire? And does the city still provide the required welfare infrastructures for all? These seemingly mundane questions cut to the core of what urban environments
This June, we wrap up our year-long design studio journey with 13 students, who worked on our second scenario, “The Fluid City”. Focused on the Brussels Capital Region, the studio explored how community welfare infrastructures can address vacancy and promote ecological welfare amid the city’s demographic growth. It emphasizes the
On the week of the 18th of March, the chair of Brussels Studies Institute took place. In that context, we were happy to welcome Raquel Rolnik, a professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at University of São Paulo. During a week, Raquel Rolnik shared her insights from over 45
In the first week of March, the WELCOMIN team was in Berlin to carry out fieldwork concerning the second scenario of the research. Named the Fluid City, this scenario works from a perspective of 20 years from now. In this scenario, we account that the population of Brussels would have
Closing the Fall Semester, the mid-term presentations of the Design Studio participants will fuel a collective discussion on the typology of community welfare mixed infrastructures (WELCOMINs) in Brussels and their genealogy. Centred on care, these initiatives are the expression of an ecological welfare and the infrastructure of an eco-resilient city.
On the 16th of October 2023, RABBKO and the City of Brussels hosted “Ruimte Delen”, a cultural platform adressing the theme of ‘sharing space’. Rising real estate prices are making it harder to find suitable workplaces. The spatial pressure on the city is sky-high. It is high time to look
The mixed-method research approach of the project will explore the potential of community welfare infrastructures by interweaving:
Based on this approach, WELCOMIN will develop a prospective strategy and policy recommendations supporting the realisation of community welfare infrastructures in the Brussels-Capital Region.
by Bas van Heur Abstract Although still a niche within established disciplines, research on urban vacancy has boomed in recent decades, with different research communities
by Bas van Heur, Els Silvrants-Barclay, Menna Agha. – In this article, we discuss three core concerns: developing diverse and flexible understandings and models of ownership, designing architectural typologies that contribute to more accessible and inclusive cultural spaces, and realizing modes of grassroots urban governance that allow for collective action beyond token participation.
Verena Lenna
Senior researcher
verena.lenna@vub.be
Arshia Ali Azmat
Researcher & community organiser
arshia.azmat@vub.be
Contact: info@welcomin.brussels
Bas van Heur
Project supervisor
bas.van.heur@vub.be
Nele Aernouts
Project supervisor
nele.aernouts@vub.be
Els Silvrants-Barclay
Associate partner
els@permanentbrussels.org
