An odd element of infrastructure, the N4, linking Brussels to Luxembourg, was for centuries an important road - dynamic, efficient, high-performance. In the second half of the twentieth century, however, the establishment of a national motorway network led to a disinvestment, a neglect of this now secondary road. It fell into oblivion. Paradoxically, the N4 survived, behind numerous characteristics that make it a peculiar territorial condition.
Based on a long experience and a particular interest in the relationship between the infrastructure that organises the landscape and the built environment that accompanies it, Artgineering studied the N4 and has put into perspective the under-estimated potential of a secondary road system considered by many as a territorial error. This research is supplemented by perspectives from urban design, sociology, administration, infrastructure and photography, offering us complementary frameworks of interpretation.
This publication forms a deliberately hybrid compilation, a mix of a non-exhaus-tive x-ray scan of a situation, a subjective observation of an environment, and an act of optimism and forecasting. Finally, it puts into perspective the potential of the Nationale 4 as source of inspiration for a new conception of the regional infrastructural network.

An odd element of infrastructure, the N4, linking Brussels to Luxembourg, was for centuries an important road - dynamic, efficient, high-performance. In the second half of the twentieth century, however, the establishment of a national motorway network led to a disinvestment, a neglect of this now secondary road. It fell into oblivion. Paradoxically, the N4 survived, behind numerous characteristics that make it a peculiar territorial condition.
Based on a long experience and a particular interest in the relationship between the infrastructure that organises the landscape and the built environment that accompanies it, Artgineering studied the N4 and has put into perspective the under-estimated potential of a secondary road system considered by many as a territorial error. This research is supplemented by perspectives from urban design, sociology, administration, infrastructure and photography, offering us complementary frameworks of interpretation.
This publication forms a deliberately hybrid compilation, a mix of a non-exhaus-tive x-ray scan of a situation, a subjective observation of an environment, and an act of optimism and forecasting. Finally, it puts into perspective the potential of the Nationale 4 as source of inspiration for a new conception of the regional infrastructural network.