The Rampart, The Traffic Artery, and the Park; Designing for the city regions of Antwerp
Through a close reading of Antwerp’s current spatial and socio-economic composition, and the introduction of the interplay between the city’s three defining paradigms – abstracted to ‘The Rampart, the Traffic Artery, and the Park’ – this study tries to sketch a unifying strategy for Antwerp’s metropole. A strategy that embeds residential, economic, cultural, recreational, climatic, and historical motives within the different city regions. Thereby improving the connection between the left and right side of the river; transitioning the suburban region to a more polycentric structure while maintaining a spatial relation to the city; and explicitly manages the horizontal growth of the periphery. But that most importantly, captures the metropole in a single narrative from its inner-city to its outer edges. Graduation thesis prepared for the master’s degree in urban design at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
Through a close reading of Antwerp’s current spatial and socio-economic composition, and the introduction of the interplay between the city’s three defining paradigms – abstracted to ‘The Rampart, the Traffic Artery, and the Park’ – this study tries to sketch a unifying strategy for Antwerp’s metropole. A strategy that embeds residential, economic, cultural, recreational, climatic, and historical motives within the different city regions. Thereby improving the connection between the left and right side of the river; transitioning the suburban region to a more polycentric structure while maintaining a spatial relation to the city; and explicitly manages the horizontal growth of the periphery. But that most importantly, captures the metropole in a single narrative from its inner-city to its outer edges.
Graduation thesis prepared for the master’s degree in urban design at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Ecological structure - total
existing and potential
51). Many, but not all, of the defence structures have been marked as heritage
or protected landscape, or as city or villagescape (beschermde stads- en dorpsgezichten)
(Province of Antwerp & Fortengordels, 2014, p. 55).
Looking at the historic inundation areas we see that this currently coincides with
the designated flooding areas in the region. This is not surprising, since many
of the waterways have not been altered over the last few decades. The biggest
changes have occurred in the landscape that is now the harbour, and the district
of Linkeroever, which was raised artificially.
Ecological structure - radials
existing and potential
Ecological structure - tangents
existing and potential
There have been many plans for the fortification system over the years. Most of
these plans focus on individual forts, but there are two that study a larger scale:
the previously mentioned Kaderplan, Fortengordels rond Antwerpen (Framework
plan, fortification belts around Antwerp) from 2014, and the plan Herover de
fortengordel (recapture the fortification belt) from 2002. The former studies the
entirety of the redoubt system and comes to some of the same conclusions as
presented in this chapter; mainly the spiral and the large ecological structure
around the metropolitan region (next subchapter). The latter presents a plan for
the inner fortification belt on the left and right bank (see chapter 3.1 for more
information). What both of these plans have in common however, is that they
often focus on a very micro level – the scale of the individual fort – and scope
their strategy or development plan in such a way that it only includes the historical
and recreational dimensions, leaving what potential this system has from a
morphological, economic, or infrastructural point of view out of the study. The
Kaderplan study seems to have not received a follow-up since its release, the
Herover de fortengordel plan seems to have been only partially executed.
Ecological structure vs.
fortification spiral
Figure 2.3
Drawing of the defence system of
Antwerp in relation to large ecological
structures. The map used is from
Google Maps (Google, 2020).
The defence system in relation to large ecological structures
The dotted hatch on the left page shows and abstraction of the Biologische
Waarderingskaart en Natura 2000 Habitatkaart 2018 (Biological valuation map
and Natura 2000 habitat map 2018). The hatch represents all areas that are
deemed valuable or extremely valuable (Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek,
2018). We see that most of the historic inundation, and the current flood areas,
have been marked as valuable ecological zones. This should not come as a real
surprise, since the historic inundation was predominantly a natural occurring
phenomenon focussed around large natural entities, that were adapted to suit
the needs of Antwerp. In extension to the comments on the value of the forts as
fauna habitats on the previous page, we also see that the majority of the forts
are deemed ecologically valuable.
We can distinguish a system of radial and concentric ecological zones
of which the three largest are: (1) the Scheldt River Valley leading to the Schel-
103
Change language