About the project

Behind every building lies a web of workers, materials and money. The interdisciplinary research programme Flows in the Construction Sector investigates how these connections have shaped the construction of Brussels from the nineteenth century to today.

The project follows the flows that make building possible: people moving across neighbourhoods, cities and borders; materials travelling from extraction sites, workshops, factories and reuse networks to construction sites; and money circulating through firms, credit systems, public investment and real estate markets. Together, these flows determine how the city grows, who benefits from urban development, and who bears its risks.

Taking Brussels as its central case, the project approaches construction as more than the making of buildings. It studies the construction sector as a powerful urban force: one that produces housing, infrastructure and workplaces, but also shapes labour relations, migration patterns, resource use, environmental impact and everyday urban life.

To understand these dynamics, the project develops the concept of urban building regimes: historically specific ways in which labour, materials and capital are organised, regulated and embedded in the city. This perspective helps reveal how construction can generate inequality, precarity and environmental pressure, but also how it can become a site of care, repair, circularity and social inclusion.

Building on previous IRP research

Flows in the Construction Sector builds on a long-standing collaboration between the VUB research groups Architectural Engineering, Cosmopolis and Social History of Capitalism (SHOC), bringing together expertise in architectural engineering, construction history, urban geography, as well as social, economic and environmental history. It follows two earlier interdisciplinary research programmes developed by the same research groups: 'Building Brussels. Brussels City Builders and the Production of Space, 1794–2016’ (VUB IRP, 2016–2021) and ‘Re-Building Brussels (1695–2025). The construction sector as an engine for social inclusion and circularity’ (VUB IRP, 2021–2026).

Together, these projects have established the Brussels construction sector as a rich field for studying the social, material and spatial production of the city. The new IRP project continues this trajectory and expands it towards the interrelated flows of labour, materials and money that sustain, transform and challenge urban construction over time.

New positions

More information on the opportunity to work with us will follow soon.

Image description. This glass plate from the photographic collection of the Belgian Ministry of Public Works shows the demolition of the façade of the Royal Palace in central Brussels in 1905. The image brings together several flows that are central to the project: labour, materials, money and urban life. Behind the wooden site enclosure, the façade is being dismantled by the contractor J. Hichef et frères, entrepreneurs de travaux publics, while a sign announces that the released building materials are for sale — matériaux à vendre. The scene thus captures demolition not simply as destruction, but as part of a wider cycle of construction, reuse and urban transformation. In the foreground, workers, materials and passers-by occupy the same urban space. Some Brussels residents pause to observe the works with curiosity; others hurry past. The image also suggests a striking contrast between the major financial flows invested in the embellishment of the Royal Palace and the creation of its monumental front garden, and the everyday labour of the workers who made this transformation possible. As such, the photograph offers a Brussels-specific snapshot of the construction sector as an entanglement of public investment, material circulation, labour and civic life.

Contact

Stephanie Van de Voorde. VUB Architectural Engineering. Stephanie.Van.de.Voorde()vub.be

Ine Wouters. VUB Architectural Engineering. Ine.Wouters()vub.be

David Bassens. VUB — Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research. David.Bassens()vub.be

Anne Winter. VUB — SHOC, Social History of Capitalism. Anne.Winter()vub.be

Bob Pierik. VUB — SHOC, Social History of Capitalism. Bob.Pierik()vub.be

Fabio Vanin. VUB — Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research. Fabio.Vanin()vub.be