Cureghem’s Energy Transition as an Urban Project
Leveraging Energy Justice to Transform Vulnerable Urban Neighbourhoods
Dieter Bruggeman (Postdoctoral researcher at VUB Cosmopolis), Fabio Vanin (Assistant Professor at VUB Cosmopolis & co-founder of LATITUDE Platform) & Laura Shllaku (PhD researcher at VUB Cosmopolis & UGhent AMRP)
We provide dessert for the break after the seminar. Please register if you want to join and/or enjoy the dessert!
In recent years, numerous energy transition projects on the scale of the neighbourhood have emerged, along with a range of concepts and programmes to stimulate, support, streamline, mainstream or assess these. Many of these initiatives intend to achieve their ambitions through a meticulously engineered combination of technical and social interventions. Although energy justice is increasingly taken into account in the design of such energy transition initiatives, these considerations are of merely secondary importance or water down when confronted with real-world heterogeneous urban arrangements. In the quest for structural integration of energy justice when planning and designing for renewable energy transition, this presentation focuses on the results of the PED4ALL project in Cureghem, one of the most socio-economically vulnerable and culturally diverse neighbourhoods of the Brussels Capital Region. Throughout the development of pathways for the neighbourhood’s energy transition, achieving a socially just condition to produce and consume (renewable) energy, in terms of recognitional, procedural and distributive justice, was taken as its starting point, not as a side issue.
Dieter Bruggeman is a postdoctoral researcher at the Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research. His research explores the (re)organization of collective services as key processes of urbanization, with a particular focus on non-metropolitan urban contexts such as in Belgium, and energy provisioning. In order to better understand and shape urban dynamics – especially in the context of contemporary sustainability challenges – he examines these processes by tracing their evolution over time and space, and through a socio-spatial lens.
In addition to his research activities, Dieter Bruggeman is involved in the Master's programmes in Urban Design and Spatial Planning (STeR*) and Urban Studies (MUS). He contributes to the design studio, teaches on the history and theory of urban planning, and supervises and evaluates theses. He also has experience as a project collaborator in architectural and urban planning practice.
Fabio Vanin is professor of landscape urbanism at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and co-founder and director of LATITUDE Platform for Urban Research and Design.
His current research addresses the relation between design and social practices - including the emerging socio-spatial patterns based on security issues -, environmental threats in urbanized areas, and the role of public art in urban regeneration processes. He also has a strong research interest in the growth of post-independence urban agglomerations, especially in Lusophone countries.
Laura Shllaku is a junior researcher at the Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research. In August 2024, Laura started a joint PhD at Ghent University (AMRP) and VUB Brussels (Cosmopolis), researching urban transition pathways to Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) with a focus on vulnerable communities.
She is particularly interested in exploring new urban transition models that promote climate-neutral, resilient, and livable neighborhoods. She is currently involved in two projects, PED4ALL and CO2PED, that investigate PED development. At Cosmopolis, Laura is currently involved in the PED4ALL project, which aims to develop replicable strategies for Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) by studying the chosen cases in Brussels, Rome, and Istanbul. The project aims to leverage diverse expertise and engage stakeholders to develop and test conceptual and practical strategies on the energy, governance, and social aspects of PEDs.