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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Potential for polycentric development
30-minute radials
transport
Planned
concentric
public
studied.
to be
Concentric connection that is going
Public transport system of Antwerp.
Figure 3.12
Abstract representation of Antwerp’s
public transport system and planned
and potential concentric connections.
Figure 3.13 - left
These drawings show the travel distance
with public transport and bicycle
in 30 minutes. These maps were
generated by the website TravelTime,
which makes an actual rending of a
travel time map. It should be noted
that these maps might not show a
representative image of the distance
travelled in 30 minutes, as the maps
were made during the Covid-19
pandemic, on the 8th of June 2020.
Meaning that the timetable of the public
transport might have varied from
that of an average day. It is however,
unlikely that this would have resulted
in substantial changes to the overall
shape of the map.
Legend
30 minute bicycle reach
30 minute public transport
reach
Departure point
(P+R structure)
Antwerp’s infrastructure in relation to travel time
The map on the previous spread shows all the major changes to Antwerp’s
infrastructural system after the ring project is complete. It shows the new public
transport line in the ring zone that spans the length of Luchtbal to Linkeroever,
not going fully round. We also see the improved bicycle highway network, that
covers all the important radials, and does go fully round the inner-city. And it
shows us the route of the Oosterweel-link and the A102.
The dashed rectangles give an abstract indication of the where 30 minutes of
travel time via public transport will get you taken from all the P+R structures
in Antwerp. The abstraction was made based on the travel time maps on
the page to the left, which also show the distance covered in 30 minutes by
bicycle. In terms of public transport, we can clearly see the radial monocentric
structure of Antwerp’s mobility system. The system is designed to get commuters
to and from the inner-city, getting to other parts of the suburbs – to other
economic focal points – is much more time consuming. This is especially true
for the commuters coming from the Waasland, as there is currently only one
public transport line crossing the Scheldt.
The public transport planned along the ring – the tram and bus lines – and the
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