LE RING Le ring is not round. More like a capital B, flipped and mirrored The Brussels ring road (Le Ring), a multi-lane road 76 kilometers long, encircles the Belgian capital. The northern section of the ring road runs close to the city. The southern route makes a wide U-shaped curve around the metropolis. Brussels is not an urban island surrounded by sweeping vistas; the city and its outskirts are communicating vessels. The beltway has left its mark on the surrounding landscape. One forest divided by Le Ring equals four forests. The suburbs flourished and grew to be four times larger than the metropolis. A place where one can find a garden with a house. Ring-oriented sites like hospitals and shoppings malls have anchored themselves there. On the shadow side, leftover spaces are patched together with spit and string. Regional and language borders have not been able to stop the urban sprawl. The result is a patchwork of urban, suburban, and rural zones that alternate each other, seemingly without any logic. It appears as though this landscape came into being ‘en stoemelings’—by accident. During a mountain hike, you can experience four seasons in a single day. The same applies to this zone: in one day you can walk through a metropolis, stroll along residential neighbourhoods, then turn onto a sunken lane bordering farmland, only to end your journey on a main road lined with ribbon development. The landscape awaits the city; unlike Godot, the arrival of the first is assured.