Projects

The challenge

The rehabilitation of industrial brownfields present a unique opportunity to revitalize urban areas, promote sustainable development and foster economic innovation. IDEA Consult has been working on a masterplan for more than 300 hectares of industrial brownfield around Liège.

The process & results

The Walloon Region commissioned a multidisciplinary team to produce a Master Plan for 4 industrial sites in Liège (Chertal, HFB, Cockerie, HF6) representing over 300 Ha.

The aim was to build local momentum by rallying stakeholders around a common objective.

To achieve this, the group proposed a 3-stage approach:

1. Diagnosis with bilateral interviews of local, external, public and private players
2. Scenario proposal and co-construction
3. Action plan and consolidation of strategies by specific themes

The process of building the economic strategy followed three guiding principles:

• A highly inclusive, interactive and iterative co-creation process, involving a wide range of players (public sector representatives, companies, research centres and representatives of civil society, etc).
• The process was largely based on the regional smart specialization strategy (S3), the circular wallonia strategy and the elements available in the recovery plan (Get Up Wallonia report). The process thus aimed to define where, with whom and how the Walloon innovation ecosystem could provide answers to these challenges in the form of innovative solutions, and how it can accelerate the societal transitions necessary for Wallonia’s future. We have translated these intentions for the Liège sites by attempting to spatialize these intentions in response to societal challenges;
• Finally, we have open our minds to new practices and approaches on how to develop economic zones, to achieve a greater mix of functions, more interaction and resilience in economic systems, and ultimately more impact (direct and indirect jobs, among others, but also impacts in terms of creativity, regional influence, environmental impact…) in the use of land with a predominantly economic purpose.

IDEA Consult analysed the local economic fabric, linking it with macro-economic trends and regional economic and innovation strengths. By cross-referencing these two approaches, various economic development potentials emerged, which were refined with local economic players to define an overall strategy. In addition, a costing of the economic impact of redeploying industrial sites and the spin-offs in terms of employment were estimated to guide public authorities in their decision-making.