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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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Front facades with buffer zone towards the ring.

Back facades towards the ring.

Front facades with buffer zone towards the ring.

Back facades towards the ring.

Loose objects with or without buffer zone towards the ring.

Front facades with buffer zone towards the ring.

Front Loose facades objects with buffer or without zone buffer towards zone the towards ring. the ring.

Industrial buildings towards the ring.

Back facades towards the ring.

Back Industrial facades buildings towards towards the ring. the ring.

Loose objects with or without buffer zone towards the ring.

Loose objects with or without buffer zone towards the ring.

Industrial buildings towards the ring.

Industrial buildings towards the ring.

The effect of the ring on the spatial characteristics of the

ring zone

The previous spread shows the effect that the ring has on its surrounding area;

the inner-city and suburbs. We can conclude that the city and suburbs, as

discussed in previous chapters, is not only turning away from the highway ring,

but also a railway that runs along its entire track. There are in general four

types that can be distinguished of how the adjacent built environment reacts to

the ring.

The first (1) is with front facades with a green buffer zone towards the ring.

This type is the most common; the green buffer is often a row of trees and/or

shrubbery. The second (2) type is loose objects, either with or without a green

buffer, towards the ring. These can be either residential high-rise or largescale

amenities that have found their home along the ring. With the latter the

buffer zone is often missing. The residential high-rise is mainly located on the

edge of the suburban region. The third (3) type is back facades towards the

ring; an uncompleted building block. This is a less common type that mainly

shows itself in the north-eastern section of the inner-city, where there is also

a marshalling yard alongside the ring. The fourth type (4) is industry alongside

or in the ring area. This is again less common; a type we only see in the

north-eastern section of the inner-city, between the marshalling yard and the

Figure 4.11

The type of responses to the presence

of the ring in the built environment.

204

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