The Rampart, The Traffic Artery, and the Park; Designing for the city regions of Antwerp

3.1
The Suburban
Fortification Belt
On the potential role of the inner fortification belts in
Antwerp's upcoming polycentric city
The inner two fortification belts perhaps had a difficult start. Almost as soon as
they were constructed between 1859 and 1885 they were deemed obsolete
due to the advances in the firing range of long-range artillery. Fortification
belts that once laid some distance from the city, currently find themselves surrounded
or at the periphery, of the suburban region of Antwerp.
Arguably the most famous of the two belts; the Brialmont belt, and its
accompanying Krijgsbaan has now become a semi-important concentric car
and bicycle corridor. As a result of its location and the potential connecting
quality it can bring to the suburban region, Antwerp has long loomed over
the boulevard as a way to increase the connectivity of the city. As already
discussed in previous chapters, the Krijgsbaan, or R11 as it is now called, has
been part of a few plans of the years. Starting out as a small section of the
1960s plan for the R2, and in recent years as part of the A102 and second
railway connection to the harbour. Both of these plans were in effort to alleviate
some of the traffic congestion of the ring, the R1. However, both of these
plans were to no avail, as the local municipalities would have none of it, not
even when both the highway and the railway were to be put completely underground.
This immediately shows the difficulty of devising an overarching plan
for these belts; its splintering in as much as seven municipalities.
The following chapter will explore the composition of the inner fortification
belts and trace the remnants of these structures to present-day Antwerp in relation
to function, ecology, morphology, accessibility and economy. This chapter
will conclude with a polycentric strategy for the suburban region of Antwerp;
leaning on the positioning of the inner fortification belt as a pearl necklace of
the previous chapter that links the various economic, cultural, recreational and
ecological zones in the suburban area together.
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