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 4.23 - previous three spreads
Drawings of the current and new
morphology along the ring zone and
Linkeroever.
Densification plan for the ring area
The drawings of the previous spreads show a cumulation of all the components
of the densification plan for the that gives conceptual direction to the
green city ring and the densification of the city and suburban districts along the
ring, and Linkeroever as part of the inner-city of Antwerp. The plan presented
here, positions itself as an extreme scenario that examines the maximum densification
possible should the entirety of the ring be capped. Exploring what the
city could become when population growth, and climate and health issues are
used as its primary drivers. The following pages elaborate on the plan’s basic
components. The final pages of the chapter will go into more detail about the
urban plan developed for Linkeroever.
Fully capped ring
Because this urban plan is positioned as an extreme scenario, the highway ring
will be put underground in its entirety. The railway section from Zwijndrecht till
the turn inward to the city will also be put underground, as this section runs on
the same level as the ring. The drawing to the left shows the current and new
ring. All the exits have been kept, with two additions; a new exit at Linkeroever
near the new P+R structure, and an exit on the north side of the Scheldt near
the remnant of Noordkasteel (an exit currently planned), to make this area
accessibly once urbanisation starts taking place here.
The plan deliberately puts the ring underground for one main reason;
to not have to go too deep into which parts of the ring stays exposed, and
which will not. This allows us to shift our entire focus on designing the ring
park to its fullest potential; as a structure around the city that helps alleviate
some of the effects of climate change, resolves most of the air and noise pollution
caused by the ring, and gives a significant region of the inner-city and
suburbs a quality green park for recreation. Which at the same time can be
used as a catalyst for urban development, and establish Antwerp as a modern
metropole that values its inhabitant’s health, thereby serving as a magnet to
attract foreign and domestic talent to the city.
Figure 4.24
Comparison of the current (top) and
new (bottom) highway ring.
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