Multispecies Collages for Marais Wiels

This paper explores directions for a more-than-human conceptualization of urban space. We present five ‘multispecies collages’ for Marais Wiels (Wiels Marshes) in Brussels. This brownfield, inhabited by a wide range of animal species, has been the subject of various construction plans and debates over the past 20 years. In the article, we will first argue that the existing imaginaries for the site, as propelled by the designers and policymakers, fail to acknowledge its multispecies complexity. Such blindness can be linked to the analytical frameworks and representational methods used by urban design professionals. We will then explore an alternative methodology to read Marais Wiels as a space of (non)human cohabitation through a mapping and collage exercise. In doing so, we use alternative data sources and speculative drawing methods. We will show how these multispecies collages, built around five perspectives, reveal a more relational understanding of the site. We conclude by confronting existing spatial imaginaries with our re-reading of Marais Wiels and reflect on the collages as an attempt to bridge the gap between more-than-human theory and urban design practice.