REPORT

Co-habitat: Towards an Animal-Inclusive Design in the Brussels-Capital Region

A 170-page cartographic and design investigation into non-human agency and animal-inclusive urbanism in the Brussels-Capital Region.

Report information

AUTHORS

Björn Bracke; Koenraad Danneels; Marlène Boura; Anna Larissa Bonifacio; Nathan Van Loon; Manu Vanderveken; Guy Heutz; Damien Claeys; Hans Leinfelder; Bruno Notteboom; Daniela Perrotti

YEAR

2,024

REPORT TYPE

Research Report

ISSUING INSTITUTION

KU Leuven / University of Louvain

PAGINATION / IDENTIFIER

170 pages; ISBN 978-94-9278-027-0

INSTITUTION

University of Louvain Urban Metabolism Lab

GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS

Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium

RESEARCH AXIS

Cross-Axis

FUNDING

Innoviris — Brussels-Capital Region

PARTNERS

KU Leuven; University of Louvain; Innoviris

THEMES

Animal-inclusive design; Multispecies urbanism; Ecological urbanism; Interpretative mapping; Non-human agency

METHODS

Cartographic analysis; interpretative mapping; systems modelling; biodiversity data analysis; research by design

Report overview

The CO-HABITAT report is a 170-page cartographic and design investigation into animal-inclusive planning in the Brussels-Capital Region. It assembles the project’s theoretical framework, regional mappings, species studies and research-by-design explorations.

The atlas uses dynamic cartography and crowdsourced observation data to trace animal presence and movement across Brussels. A detailed investigation of Marais Wiels explores how a non-human perspective changes the reading and design of a contested urban site. Additional chapters address the politics and practice of other-than-human design and the methodological implications of multispecies cohabitation analysis.

As a collective research output, the report functions both as documentation and as a design instrument. It makes non-human agency visible at metropolitan and local scales and provides planners, designers and public institutions with material for discussing coexistence, habitat and conflict.