By building and rebuilding urban space, the construction sector caters to an essential urban need, both in the past and today. However, the sector faces specific challenges: a local embeddedness that is under pressure, an enduring need for sufficient skilled workers, and a transition to a circular economy that needs to be made. To grasp this complexity, geographers, historians and engineer-architects at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel are taking a new, interdisciplinary look at the Brussels construction sector from 1695 to the present day.
This symposium will present the results of the research project ‘Building Brussels’, which focused on the composition and organisation of the Brussels building sector and how space can be made for construction companies in the city. It will then introduce the follow-up project ‘Rebuilding Brussels’, which examines how the construction sector can be a pioneer in creating a circular economy and an inclusive labour market in Brussels.
