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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Abstract
Antwerp is currently implementing two large structuring plans; the ring project
called the Grote Verbinding, and a polycentric strategy for the suburban region
called the Network City. With the first, the city wants to solve traffic congestion
via the Oosterweel-tunnel; completing the highway ring of Antwerp. This
will also mark the city’s shift to a more sustainable model split. In addition,
Antwerp plans on relocating most of the highway underground in order to construct
a large ring park, that enables the city to shift the growth of the periphery
to the ring zone. Thereby stimulating the creation of a defined urban edge
along the inner-city and suburbs facing the ring; establishing a better connection
between the two. The Network City, wants to shift the city to a polycentric
structure, that is multimodal, and short-distance. It is thereby particularly looking
at strategic densification hubs in the suburban region, allowing this area to
achieve a higher degree of autonomy, while relieving the transport system in
the inner-city.
There is a certain duality in these plans; the first tries to reconnect the
city and its suburbs; the second almost tries to do the opposite. A clear spatial
plan for both of these projects is still missing. What also seems to be missing
is a strategy that directly tries to limit the growth of the periphery, as the city
is now relying on the quality and success of the two described plans. From a
population perspective, the city might be underestimating the effects the ring
project will have on the popularity and population growth of the city, and its effect
on the rise in property value. This might make the city’s densification plans
insufficient, and it may result in them not being able to house the demographic
they aspire to – families who left the city for cheaper housing. In extension,
it might then be a missed opportunity that the left bank – Linkeroever, Zwijndrecht,
and Burcht – is mostly left out of these plans.
This study will try to draft a strategy that allows the city to attain a
more polycentric structure, while maintaining a strong link between the inner-city
and suburbs. At the same time, it tries to apply spatial limitations to the
growth of the peripheral regions, and research ways to expand the densification
plans should the population increase more than expected. This is based
on the assumptions that the ring will be fully put underground, to simulate a
maximum densification scenario; and that Linkeroever, and Zwijndrecht and
Burcht, will therefore become part of the inner-city and suburban region,
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