Jens Vuylsteke, Aude Janssens en Elias Van De Woestyne
The answer is already present in the landscape.

How can you make the history of the landscape visible for the people who live there? Using a vanished steam tram line as their starting point, third-year bachelor's students in landscape and garden architecture explored this and other questions in their bachelor's project. Among them were Jens Vuylsteke, Aude Janssens, and Elias Van De Woestyne. They studied the landscape between Vossem and Tienen, each from a different perspective.

In the first half of the twentieth century, a steam tram puffed through the valley of the Demer and the Dijle, popularly known as ‘Zwette Jean’. The origin of the name is not entirely clear, but the black locomotive and the equally black plume of smoke must have captured the imagination around 1900. 

Claire Stragier
What was your assignment?

Jens Vuylsteke
The question fit within the larger context of the Brabant Woods National Park. One of the objectives of the area vision is to create a new creative route through the park based on the tram line.

Aude Janssens
To revalue its heritage.

CS
How do you start?

Elias Van De Woestyne
First of all, go to the site and see what it actually looks like. We went there together and walked the route. We talked to the older residents who had actually ridden the tram, but it soon became clear that not much of it remained. The track disappeared again in a very short time.

AJ
There were still physical reminders, but they weren't activated yet. Passersby who weren't informed didn't know what was there. There's a small footpath with the name, a sign, and one monument, but that's a 13 km route. The line as a whole wasn't legible.

JV
Many parts have since been privatized, while you can still see the trackbed. So the question for us was: how do you deal with public and private space?

CS
What was your vision?

EVDW
For me, it was simple. The tram line disappeared again and the tram didn't run for very long. How could it happen so quickly? The progress that the tram line set in motion is precisely what caused it to disappear. I wanted to switch back to the landscape before the tram line and address contemporary issues in doing so. Coincidentally, the tram line passes through farmland, a valley, and hillsides. There is a spring that is drying up, the scale of agriculture, deforestation, and fragmentation. I found a common thread in this.

AJ
My approach was the alienated relationship between humans and nature. How can we reconnect the inhabitants of the landscape with nature? The steam tram was technological progress. It provided a faster connection between the villages. But there was still slowness associated with it. The tram couldn't get past certain slopes; it had to be equipped with enough coal and water. Today, you have to actively seek out slowness yourself. I want to use the slowing power of “Zwette Jean” to activate a conscious experience of nature and landscape in that region.

JV
Water is a very important element in the formation of a landscape. How has that influenced the landscape? We don't always deal with it in the smartest way. The tram crossed three valleys: the Voer, the Ijse, and the Dijlevalle. Those are the locations around which I started designing, and then I started working with the water elements. The elements of the landscape became more important than the history of the tram.

CS
What role does environmental awareness play in your practice?

AJ
It was often a reality check. It was about a large region with many interesting aspects. The teachers said that we didn't have to solve every problem with our bachelor's project. The focus remained on recreational use. I had to restrain myself. You can't suddenly solve the nitrogen problem of an entire national park. So I worked on raising awareness of these issues and how they could be solved.

CS
Do you look at the landscape differently after studying landscape and garden architecture?

JV
I think so. Throughout the programme, I noticed that I look at plants differently. Everything you see around you has much more meaning.

EVDW
The landscape seems static, doesn't it? When you stop and think about it and actually have all the information, it comes to life. That's what I wanted to do with the walking route: give people the right perspective to look at the landscape. It becomes so much more fascinating and interesting.

AJ
I look at nature differently. I find it ten times more beautiful and ten times more interesting. How can you stimulate people who aren't interested in that?

CS
To me, paying attention to your surroundings seems a good skill for life. Is there anything else you would like to say to your fellow students or future students?

AJ
Look around you. It's a very important skill that we've really lost and that I hope we'll regain. To look around you in every area and in every way, including at your fellow human beings.

EVDW
The answer is already present in the landscape.