New developments on stilts along a wide avenue: the Belgian modernists Huib Hoste (1881-1957) and Paul Amaury Michel (1912-1988) had grand visions. In 1937-38, they designed a progressive urbanisation plan to connect Bruges station with 't Zand and the city outskirts. Their design contained a mixture of townhouses and workers cottages, open spaces with greenery and playing areas, a theatre and a concert hall. The plan called for a couple of poorer neighbourhoods of old, dilapidated buildings to be torn down. The project never saw fruition but plans, publications and documentation regarding the project can be viewed at the Arentshuis.

In 1977, Oswald Mathias Ungers and Rem Koolhaas published their manifesto The City in the City – Berlin: A Green Archipelago. The manifesto contained concepts and models for the modern city, and was based on West Berlin. Abandoned places resulting from population migrations, demolished buildings and vanished industry were turned into green spaces. Ungers was not interested in historical reconstruction but instead in a new urban landscape with multiple centres. In 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he redesigned his plans from scratch. In partnership with UUA Köln, the Triennial is reviving the ‘City Metaphors’ (1976, New York) exhibition, in which Ungers presents his vision of the city as metaphor.