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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Sint-Niklaas
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Scheldt Estuary
Bicycle highway and
public transport route
establishing a link
between the
Brialmont belt and the
industrial areas there,
and closing the
fortification spiral for
recreational purposes.
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The Brialmont belt will
become a public tranport
and cycle boulevard
linking the different
industrial and cultural
activities on the left and
right bank; stimulating
desification.
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The new industrial
axis here will also
loop the fortification
spiral back to
Antwerp via the
Chaussee to Ghent,
ending in Linkeroever
with a line of sight to
the Cathedral.
Agricultural radial to forest
Industrial development will
remain along the important
infrastructural arteries in the
final section of the spiral. The
areas will be connected to
Antwerp via three radials: the
canal to the east, the chaussee
to Linkeroever to the west, and
the A12 (to the right)
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The Netherlands
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Belgium
This bicycle highway
will connect the
Brialmont belt to the
harbour and anti-tank
belt.
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Scheldt river valley
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Green chamb
The
Agricultural radial
Incorporating elements of
the defence system in the
ring development to
accentuate the spiral
in the city. The water
element could solve
contemporary
issues.
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ring
Green
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Green ring the around city
around the
ring around the
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Bicycle highway along the
anti-tank ditch for recreational
purposes and forming a
tangential connection between
the villages.
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iversity.
Green radial to the un
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Northern forest parks
Peers b os radial
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suburban
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metro p region
olitan
River valley of the
Mechelen
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region
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Schijn river valley
Agricultural ra dial to airport
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Green
chamber in
between
villages
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Rupel, Nete, and Dijle
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Legend
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Added public transport
and bicycle highway
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Added bicycle highway
industrial corridors
River valley
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Lier
rivers
The Fortification spiral as
the third structuring
element, mediating
between the radial and
concentric system.
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Each of element of Antwerp is
defined by a green ring or
belt; the inner-city by the Ring
Park, the suburban region by
the Brialmont fortification
belt, and the metropolitan
region by the river valley of
the Rupel, Nete, and Dijle, and
the Northern Parks.
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Inner-city fabric
Suburban region
Low density linear
development
Industrial areas
Forest or
agricultural area
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Bicycle highway on the
other side of the river
valley providing better
access to the industrial
areas and fortification
belt.
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