Group behind See U to create similar community at Pacheco Institute

Pali Pali, the organisation running the events and activities at See U in Ixelles, are being given leave to do the same in the old Pacheco Institute in Brussels-City. The first events at Pacheco should launch this summer.

Pali Pali organises cultural and social activities in existing spaces as well as offers advice and coaching. It won a public call for ideas for the 19th-century building, which has been empty since 2017.

Also known as the Grand Hospice, the building on the Rue du Canal in the old beguinage quarter was erected in the 1820s as a place for the poor, chronically ill or elderly to live. It eventually became a rest home, and the name changed to Pacheco Institute.

The building is the property of welfare agency CPAS, who shut down the rest home in 2017. The plan is to create housing out of the building, which is a protected monument.

But to give it a purpose until then, a call was put out for ideas for temporary use of the building. Pali Pali was selected to create a space similar to See U, located in the old police barracks in Ixelles. The idea is to host both public and private events and activities dedicated to sport, education, innovation, the arts and sustainable development.

“Our project will allow the site to the open to the public, in particular the gardens,” says Pali Pali, “and will involve neighbours and surrounding associations in order to create a real community culture.” Pali Pali will organise events in the building and gardens for about two years, until works start on the new housing project.

Photo ©Luca Borghi/Himetop