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.
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Figure 1.29
abstract depiction of the paradigms
These are the of the rampart, the traffic artery, and
contours of the the park.
Spaanse Omwalling -
the first paradigm.
The Rampart The Traffic Artery The Park
Lunette of Heren
s beautifully
porated in the
c of the city as a
.
The first, second and third paradigm
The last notion, that the current highway ring is located on top of the previous
ramparts is a finding that shows potential. Combined with one of the conclusions
from the previous chapter about the ring development; that the green
ring is going to facilitate a shift from the inner-city and suburbs from turning
their backs to each other, to facing one another, we might be able to establish
three different paradigms for defining or enclosing a city. The Spaanse Omwalling
and Grote Omwalling are the first paradigm, the highway ring – and
important traffic artery – is the second paradigm, and the upcoming green ring
could be the third paradigm. Or, in a more detached form we can distinguish:
(1) the rampart as the first paradigm, (2) the traffic artery as the second paradigm,
and (3) the park as the third paradigm.
These three paradigms represent different ways of completing, defining,
or enclosing a city. All of these paradigms are, of course, a product of
the time they were constructed in, and the result of dominant trends in politics,
mobility, economics, and climate. The first paradigm, the rampart, was a
barrier that quite literally tried to keep people out, only allowing entrance at
specific points. The second paradigm, the traffic artery, resulted in an urban
environment that was so unpleasant due to safety, and air and noise pollution
that people turned away from it, becoming a barrier in its own right. The third
paradigm in the plans of Antwerp, the park, also has defining properties in the
sense that it tries to define two separate areas; the inner-city and suburbs. But,
tries to do so in a way that creates a pleasant urban environment that inhabitants
of the city will flock towards. Thereby, also establishing a better connection
between the two separate entities. So, these three paradigms all have
defining qualities, but do so in completely different ways.
Figure 1.30
Drawing of the three paradigms as
applied in Antwerp’s Leien. The old
map is from Topotijdreis (Topotijdreis,
n.d.).
We can however establish that the last paradigm is not completely standing
on its own in the design of the ring park. While the park is still the main carrier
of city’s defining structure, we also see that Antwerp is planning on creating
a concentric tram line and bicycle highway along the ring park. This suggests
59
Change language