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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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Figure 4.4

Fort Vlaamsch Hoofd and the town

Sint-Anna or Sint-Anneke around the

turn of the 20th (Dresselaers, 2016)

Two access roads can be seen on the polder; the chaussee to Ghent (black

line) which ended at Sint-Anna and held a visual axis with the cathedral. We

also see the Langen Gaan road, the predecessor of the Tunnellaan that would

give access to the Waaslandtunnel after 1933. There were several other roads,

that gave access to different parts of the polder. Finally, a railway enters the

polder parallel to the chaussee, and stopping at Sint-Anna. The town at the

edge of the Borgerweertpolder gave access to a ferry service that would bring

you to Het Steen (The Stone; a medieval fortress) or the train station on the

right bank (Antrop, De Maeyer, & Vandermotten, 2006, p. 19).

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