increase visibility, shape a vision, put on the agenda, provoke debates

Platform Kanal does not have a fixed and written set of values or precise objectives. Nevertheless, a certain consensus among its members becomes apparent through the projects that have been realised. The values of Platform Kanal are citizen participation, emancipation and empowerment of the underprivileged, and a harmonious and controlled urban development.
Platform Kanal wants to increase the visibility of the Zone’s challenges, of ongoing local and supra-local projects, of existent possibilities and capacities of the inhabitants and the urban space. It addresses politicians, inhabitants, users and actors. It primarily wants to disclose the positive developments and capacities of the Zone and its inhabitants.
Platform Kanal aims at kicking off a process of imagination of a larger vision. Multiple meanings have to be attributed to this extended zone. This can be made possible through the confrontation of different development scenarios, of different visions for the future and of different political opinions, and through making of the debate a public one.
Platform Kanal seeks to influence the political agenda with regard to the urban development of the Canal Zone, notably in the framework of the future Regional Sustainable Development Plan of the Brussels-Capital Region. Therefore it wants to put the debate on the table and thus sensitise and get involved a maximum of people. If there is the need, Platform Kanal can popularise the debate, propose a certain expertise, give a direction and take a stand, make propositions … Where is utopia? This does not mean that Platform Kanal has only one single voice, vision, and standpoint. As a platform it wants to be a space of diversity and coexistence.
Platform Kanal wants to advance an innovative discourse on the different possibilities for a sustainable post-industrial development of Brussels’ old industrial districts. This is only possible by the means of an integrated action, going beyond (municipal and regional) territorial and (Flemish and French-speaking) community boundaries.