e[Sky]lier- anderlech - bruxelles

On the heights of Anderlecht, the roof terrace of the city’s bus depot overlooks the Brussels agglomeration and offers a wide panorama of the urban landscape. Although located in the immediate proximity of the street, this viewpoint remains invisible and inaccessible, hidden behind a neglected wooded strip. The eSKYlier project builds upon this paradoxical situation to reveal a concealed landscape at the heart of the city.

The project unfolds as a sequence of successive terraces, gradually lifting the passer-by from street level up to the “skyline” of Brussels. The ascent passes through an existing woodland, long overlooked, which becomes the primary medium of the experience. The garden is not added to the site; it is already there.

The guiding principle is to plant nothing. The intervention consists of a precise act of gardening, based on pruning and accompanying the existing vegetation. Selective cutting reveals the forms and free-growing habits of spontaneously established ornamental species, opens up views and creates sequences of light. The dense and generous vegetation structures the route and directs the gaze.

From the sidewalk, visitors gradually leave the ordinary urban space to embark on an immersive ascent. Moving through this luxuriant vegetation prepares the final opening onto the vast metropolitan landscape. eSKYlier thus transforms a residual space into a spatial device, where the garden becomes a tool for revealing the site and forging a direct relationship between the lived city and its horizon.

Festival Secret Garden - Bruxelles