Viaduct Gentbrugge

What is the future perspective of the viaduct of the E17, a European highway that runs through the city of Ghent and its neighboring municipalities? In the next 20 years, this structure need a thorough renovation or replacement. Such an intervention requires our research and social debate.
First, in the exploration phase of the project, we involved various stakeholders - both professional actors, such as local and supra-local administrations, and semi- or non-professional actors, such as citizens' movements. The main goal of this collaboration was to acquire insights from all the different parties. Second, we have placed expertise at the heart of the process. This step has included technical and local expertise which has given the right direction to the content and eliminated some presuppositions.
Finally, a broad engagement in a shared project was realized through the organization of open and online co-creation weeks. People were mobilized around the subject, from the general public to politicians.
The objectives that emerged from this process combine aspects of mobility, livability, ecology, and process. This concerns the (inter)national, regional, and local scale. The different parameters were mapped and integrated into an evaluation tool. By means of a strongly imaginative design research, these objectives and parameters were made clear and open for discussion.