Brussels is a city in perpetual transformation, oscillating between heritage preservation and present-day issues. In this back and forth, archives challenge and influence our understanding of the urban environment.
During the Heritage Days, CIVA proposes to draw parallels between the documents preserved in its collections and their reality in the city today. The links between past and present become apparent as visitors delve into the collections and explore CIVA’s surroundings.
Since the late 1960s, CIVA’s collections have documented a changing urban ecosystem. Discovering, studying and questioning these collections is a way of gaining a new understanding of the built environment both past and present. These historical, political and heritage traces are ubiquitous in the city.
In the 1970s, Brusselization caused the destruction of part of the city’s heritage and led to a new awareness of this legacy. The city was being transformed, and at the same time a number of architects were proposing a new approach to the creation of buildings, ones that have since become emblematic. This dual movement continues to challenge us today in a cosmopolitan city marked by the constant flow of urban transformations and by economic and ecological challenges.
Dive into our collections and into the city to (re)discover them!
