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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tracks, it is unclear what this distinction entails (increased frequency, less stops,
etc.). In the upcoming years the possibility of installing tram rails on the quay,
the capped ring, and possibly the R11 will be researched. The capped ring
in this system is supposed to form the tangential link that is going to connect
the different radials coming to the city, much like in the previously mentioned
bicycle network. However, in contrast to the bicycle network, the public transport
will not go fully around the city, but stop at the P+R on Linkeroever (Team
West; De Urbanisten; Omgeving; COBE, 2018).
In addition to the tram improvements, the city wants to encourage travel via
water-, bicycle-, or regular taxis, possibly reserving separate lanes for this type
of traffic. For example, the municipality is looking into allowing more ferry
transport on the Albertkanaal, approaching the city from the east. The mobility
plan also describes the city’s interest in car sharing, stating that they want
to stimulate this, and are thereby joining in on the beginning transition from
car-ownership to car-access (Municipality of Antwerp, 2015).
The bigger picture
The Grote Verbinding will be an integral part of the Strategic Spatial Structure
Plan for Antwerp that is currently in development. An overview of the plan
outlining the main goals was released in 2018 in a memorandum. In this
document the city subdivides their ambitions into three groups: The Vibrant
residential city, the Smart network city, and the Resilient landscape (Department
of Urban development, Team Spatial planning, 2018, p. 3).
The first, the vibrant residential city, focusses on Antwerp’s housing
market; the city want to keep a healthy cross-section of the entire population.
Antwerp expects to grow with 30.000 new families by 2030. Half of the homes
needed for this are already planned, and for the other half they are counting
on the continuity of the market. They especially want to tackle the current trend
of families with children leaving the city in favour of the suburbs, by adding
more family apartments in their own projects, as well as stimulating the market
to do the same. Through changes in the building code, the city wants to nudge
the market to continue to build larger projects with collective space. Affordability
is a big reason why families are moving out. The city wants to cater to these
families, and prevent the downsizing of apartments as a result, by introducing
new financing options, like leaseholds or developing housing companies in
which the residents can buy shares (Department of Urban development, Team
Spatial planning, 2018, pp. 7-9).
The city makes a distinction between five areas in the city (see figure 1.3).
Antwerp wants to shift the densification focus to what they call the 20th century
belt – the suburbs across the ring, as this area already has a diverse range
of amenities available. They see areas along public transport hubs, on the
Figure 1.3
Drawing of the Vibrant Residential City
(Department of Urban development,
Team Spatial planning, 2018, p. 8).
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