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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beyond. Both of these areas have low density and poor(er) access to public
transport in common in relation to other areas in the suburban belt. A probable
reason for the concentration of higher property values along the strip going
south from Middelheim is the combination of green, and the university and
hospital, two amenities that attract high income inhabitants. The whole area
is roughly defined by the green radial entering the city here and the railway
running along the east side;
For the remainder of the suburbs we see a lower density in the south
western region of the suburban belt, near Fort 7. This could be explained by
the lack of a main public transport line; the tram does not go here. The suburbs
to the north and south of the Schijn river valley, Deurne and Borgerhout,
show a relative high density. These areas have a good connection to the tram
system and main bus lines. And, like Middelheim also lie in close proximity to
one of the larger green structure in Antwerp. However, in contrast to Middelheim
these areas do not have a high property value. Further densely populated
areas are the zones closest to the city, in the ring zone. An area that the city
has appoint as a densification zone, once the ring project has freed up some
space here.
In the city itself we see that it is rather densely populated, however, a very
broad strip at the periphery going around the city park is especially dense.
The south-western section of this strip is populated with high incomes, the
north-eastern section with low incomes. In fact, the lowest incomes in the inner
city. As mentioned in previous chapters, there is a trend of small dwelling sizes
in the inner-city of Antwerp. This is specifically the case fort the area defined
by the Leien and the Waaslandtunnel on average holds dwellings with the least
amount of rooms in Antwerp.
On the left bank, we see that Linkeroever contains quite a bit of contrast. There
is a high density, low income section, right next to area with very low density,
high income dwellings. Further into the Waasland we find that Zwijndrecht
and Burcht have a lower average density than the suburbs. This should come
to no surprise as these villages are not suburbs of Antwerp. However, they
are within the same distance of the city, but much more difficult to reach with
(public) transport. Looking at the densification plans here, we see that Antwerp
is planning to redevelop some sections of industry next to the highway between
Zwijndrecht and Burcht. It should further be noted that Antwerp does not seem
to connect the left and right bank through morphology; the defined edge that
is going to run along the built area on the right side of the river is not continued
on the left side. This is to some degree understandable in the northern
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