Leading architect Sumayya Vally, Principal of the Johannesburg/London-based studio Counterspace, has won the competition to design the new Asiat-Darse pedestrian bridge in Vilvoorde, Belgium.

Counterspace’s response to the brief uncovered the story and legacy of Paul Panda Farnana, one of the most important, yet least acknowledged figures of the city, who epitomises the region’s complex relationships with past and future generations of migrant bodies and communities.

The studio has been praised for its research-led approach, which led to the discovery of Farnana and his work, and for shedding light on an otherwise overlooked, vital part of the city’s history.

Farnana used his position to advocate for the rights of black people and participated in the first Pan African Congress in 1919, initiated by W.E.B. Du Bois. This inspired him to found the first Congolese association in Belgium: the Union congolaise, an association for mutual aid and moral development of the Congolese race.

"Vilvoorde is a city celebrated for its diversity. It comprises multiple cultures, identities, and narratives. I was deeply moved to uncover the story of Paul Panda Farnana through our research, which then drove our response to the city’s brief for a pedestrian bridge. Trained as a horticulturist at the Vilvoorde Horticultural School not far from the site, this project will revive Farnana’s legacy by foregrounding the concept on the species explored in his research, alongside water architectures from the Congo."

- Sumayya Vally

Vally looked to the water architectures of the Congo as one of the starting points to honour this history. Along the Congo River, fleets of dugout canoes are frequently seen docked alongside one another. As a collective, they form a communal platform, from which trading and gathering can take place.

These images form the basis for the proposed Asiat-Darse bridge, itself a place of gathering of travellers, whether commuters or visitors. The bridge is constructed of a series of boats tied together to cross the canal.

Vally looked at plants and species to honour Farnana’s horticultural work. Each ‘boat’ form serves as an isolated seed bed, in which specific plants can be cultivated in order for their seeds to be spread on the wind, and carried on the bodies of people travelling across the bridge. As a result, the bridge pays homage to Farnana’s horticultural work, serving as a nursery, or seeding bed from which plants may distribute themselves, migrating across the site.

In addition to the main structure, several smaller boat structures are proposed, which embed themselves along the river bank. Each of them will be named for the labourers whose names were included on the register from the Congo, which the studio discovered in their research.

Every boat will act as a pollinator - pollinating an industrial zone and acting as a little garden for reflection for passers-by to rest in.

“It is rarely seen that a work of art which completely integrates an almost forgotten history of our city and our country, integrates both the DNA of Vilvoorde and connects the city with a new green space above the ancient Zenne."

Mayor Hans Bonte

Phase 1 of the Asiat Darse Bridge project commenced with a series of floating ‘boat’ gardens - pollinators planted in close collaboration with faculty and students of Horteco agricultural school, a secondary school in Vilvoorde focused on nature, science, vegetation, animals, and the environment. The work has been integrated into their curriculum, specifically within their Biotoopstudie and Praktijk Beheerstechnieken courses, in which they study plant species. Senior students have contributed to the planting plan and execution, taking into consideration local plants and species that align with the landscape ambitions for the site.

As students plant and tend to the gardens, they learn about species from the local ecology and Farnana’s research and legacy. A previously toxic industrial landscape where so many people from the Congo worked as slaves and then labourers is also being pollinated and rewilded in the process.

Giving this agency to the local community of Vilvoorde in the early stages of the project fulfills an important ideal of this project, in that it encourages participation, ownership, diverse and vibrant ecology; and greater awareness about Farnana and the relationship of Vilvoorde to the Congo.