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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Dyke breaches
Dyke breaches
Dyke breaches
Direction of water flow
to finance the construction of the fortification belt on the left bank. The vacant
land was redeveloped to the district t’ Zuid, and a train station that gave
access to a ferry to the Borgerweertpolder (Nagels, 2012, p. 29). This development
gave the Omwalling the form on the left page.
Around the Interbellum, when the military advantage of a rampart
was fading into the background, the section around the Noordkasteel was
refurbished and demolished to house an extension of Antwerp’s growing harbour.
The other parts of the Omwalling were subsequently demolished to make
way for the highway ring in the 1960s. Today, only three parts of the rampart
remain; a section of Noordkasteel, and two small sections of the wet moats of
the lunettes in the southern part of the city.
Direction of water flow
Direction of water flow
Visual axis to the Cathedral
Visual axis to the Cathedral
Visual axis to the Cathedral
Figure 4.3
Detailed drawing of the Borgerweertpolder
(Topotijdreis, n.d.).
The Borgerweertpolder
The adjacent page shows the situation of the Borgerweertpolder during its
period as inundation area. On the drawing we see three locations where dyke
breaches were made when the area was inundated. As far as the literature
covers it, the dykes were breached for military reasons (meaning not due to
a heavy storm) on six occasions, in 1576, 1584, 1591, 1678, 1745, and
1794. The result of these inundations is visible in the landscape of the polder
in the form of the Geuzeweel, the Galgeweel, and the Burchtse weel, which all
formed due to the massive force of the breaching water. We also, very subtlety
see Linkeroever’s extensive irrigation system which was used to transport water
out of the polder in case of an inundation, but it also made the land highly
suitable as pasture land. Due to the polder’s soil composition pre-heightening
with Scheldt Sand, the polder was not suitable for the growing of crops, so it
was therefore used to raise cattle. The area was leased or sold to butchers or
livestock traders, the ditch structure was used to sell individual plots. Contrary
to what might seem logical, the draining water did not run to the north like the
Scheldt does, but rather to the south. The level of the polder was around 4,5
metres lower than that of the fortifications or the town of Sint-Anna. The polder
itself was between 0,7 and 1,5 metres about sea level (Verbeeck, 1944, pp.
165-166).
We see several forts on the polder, as mentioned before, these were
not built as a direct result of the city’s role as National Redoubt. The wet moat
and defensive structure are the of a strategy of Napoleon during the French
occupation of Antwerp, who wanted to turn Fort Vlaamsch Hoofd and the town
Sint-Anna into a new city district. A shifting economy from textile to trading was
to thank for this. The new city was to receive the name Ville Marie-Louise, and
would get an arsenal, shipyards, and residential barracks. A temporary pontoon
bridge was supposed to connected the two sides of the river. However,
with the defeat of Napoleon, the city remained unbuilt (Schoofs, 2003a).
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