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.
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Introduction
Antwerp is on the eve of implementing two large structuring plans that are
going to change the face of the metropole forever. The first project is the socalled
Grote Verbinding (Big Connection). With this project the city of Antwerp
is going to rebuilt its city highway, the ring of Antwerp, in a multi-million-euro
project that is going to span the next ten to fifteen years. With it, the city
wants to tackle the large congestion problems it is currently facing through the
construction of the Oosterweel-link; a tunnel under the Scheldt that is going to
make the existing ring ‘round’. A completion that will also mark the city’s shift
to a cleaner modal split, with less motorised traffic and more cycling and public
transport. Parallel to this the city wants, on the long-term, to relocate almost
the entirety of the ring underground, in the most ambitious highway capping
project of the past 50 years. On top of this cap the city wants to build a lush
green ring park. A park that has the ability to shift the growth of the peripheral
regions to the area along the ring; the edge of the inner-city and suburbs.
Stimulating the creation of a defined urban edge and a better cohesion
between city and suburbs. In addition, the city wants to create a healthier and
more climate resilient city, that positions Antwerp as one of the most competitive
metropolitan regions in Europe; to attract new talent and investment to the
city.
At the same time the city wants to actively stimulate the growth of
its metropole into a multimodal, short-distance polycentric city; a Network
City as Antwerp calls it. With this move the city wants to shift the focus of the
densification to the so-called 20th century belt; the suburban region across the
ring. With the polycentric strategy the city wants to appoint strategic densification
hubs along existing multimodal hubs or large amenities in the suburban
region. Thereby allowing the suburbs to gain a higher degree of autonomy,
relieve the pressure on the exiting transport system of the inner-city, and also
slow down the growth of the peripheral regions.
Figure 0.0
Aerial photograph of Antwerp and its
suburbs (Google, 2020).
Within these two projects we find a certain duality. The ring project tries to
increase the connection between the city and its suburban region, through
the park and the urban edge. While the polycentric strategy, is almost doing
the opposite; creating a larger sense of autonomy through the stimulation of
polycentric hubs. At present a clear spatial plan for both of these projects is
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