Living Antwerpsesteenweg (CDA) means a nonstop negotiation with the affective vibrations coming from high-rise building construction sites, transformative green space, small commercial activity, above flight routes, the omnipresence of surveillance and monitoring infrastructure and (police) cars accelerating, improvised homelessness and the articulation of illegal drug-trafficking zones. Extreme weather conditions, the planning and implementation of new urban projects, and the rise of street violence together affect the everyday sonic environment of my home area. Via a situated engagement with the sonic materiality of my home area’s urban space, I seek to address how shifting socio-ecosystems and processes of urban development resonance and shape affective sonic geographies in Brussels Territory North. By exploring sonic cartography as a method for site survey in planning and design research, I argue for a critical re-imagining of the ecological, social, and aesthetic value of urban sound and vibration and for the importance of setting conditions for an open (infra)structuring of aesthetic and affective sonic experiences in transformative urban space.


Claus, C. (2022). CDA_N: Taking Care of What I need to Hear. In Devens, P. & E. Kersten (Eds.),The Derailment of the Usual; pp. 86 – 99. Hématomes Éditions; Liège, Belgium. (ISBN: 2960255895).

© Caroline Claus 2026