The Rampart, The Traffic Artery, and the Park; Designing for the city regions of Antwerp

vided a guideline for an environmental statement for the twelve EC countries in
1985 (Autosnelwegen.nl, n.d.). These oil crises also put a stop to the massive
economic boom that came after the Second World War. Resulting in a worldwide
rise of inflation and unemployment (Kramer, 2020; Bruinsma & Koomen,
2018, p. 35).
These two factors combined, and the counterculture that rose around
the world from the mid 1960s until roughly the start of the 1970s, due to the
economic decline, led to many protests concerning, among others, war, racial
segregation, sex, woman’s rights, the environment, and the building of highways
8 (Stapel, 2017, p. 28). The trend developed in the United States around
1965, when the baby boom generation reached maturity, with the hippie
movement, mainly initiated by the Vietnam War (Lumen, n.d.). This counterculture
spread to become a worldwide trend, among others, in Japan, Mexico,
and Brazil; the large amount of youth around the world did not agree with the
notions of the established order. In Europe, the students revolt of Paris in May
of 1968 is a famous example, but there were also protests in the Netherlands,
Belgium, Germany, and Italy (Mitropoulou, 2011; Lambeets & Van Dijl, 2018).
8.
In the Netherlands the protest regarding
the construction of the A27 near
Amelisweerd is quite interesting. The
first protest managed to bring 3000
people, to prevent the demolition of
a forest that was in the way of the
highway. The protest managed to
get national media coverage. It took
a vote from parliament to settle the
situation (Autosnelwegen.nl, n.d.).
Pessimism
In the 1980s and at the end of the 1970s, a shift becomes noticeable in
spatial planning that again puts a larger focus on the city as a place to live,
in favour of the suburb. The declining economy, rising traffic congestion, and
the terrible state in which cities worldwide were in, all led to a shifting focus
on the city. Cities in that period, because of the large-scale emptying in the
1950s and 1960s of middle to high income residents, were mostly populated
by students, low-skilled immigrants, and low-income households; i.e. people
that could not afford the suburb. As a result, most cities had to deal with impoverishment
(Kasadara, 1980, p. 30; Rottiers, 2004). In the Netherlands this
already led to a large-scale urban renewal process halfway through the 1970s
for the people living in the city at that time, especially in Rotterdam which had
to deal with terrible inner-city living conditions (redactie gebiedsontwikkeling.
nu, 2019; Pflug, 2019).
The suburbanisation and spreading of work, recreation and living,
was taking its toll on cities and society at large. Cities and governments began
nudging people back to the city, and people in general started to see the benefits
of living close to certain facilities again. Cities, mostly large metropoles
like New York began to shift from manufacturing to newer economies, like service
and governmental institutions. Therewith creating central business districts.
With this shift, cities in the United States but also in Europe, started to attract
more and more middle and high-income class residents, marking an era of
gentrification 9 and urban renewal (Peck & Hollingsworth, 1996, pp. 149-150;
Rottiers, 2004).
9.
Gentrification is a process in which a
neighbourhood is upgraded by rehabilitating
the existing housing stock, with
an increase in rent or property value
as a result. This is then accompanied
by the influx of middle- or higher-class
people, which often results in the
displacement of the previous, often
poorer residents (Grant, 2003).
10.
New Urbanism aspires to reintroduce
traditional architecture and planning
abiding with traditional development;
reviving traditional urban planning
instead of reinventing it. Advocating
the development of affordable housing,
mixed-income environments, and
walkable neighbourhoods; reducing
car traffic. The focus on old building
patterns has received the critique that
New Urbanism overlooks the economic
and social realities of the modern
world; that people are more mobile,
and that we now have multi-national
companies and globalization. The
affordability is also an issue, as New
Urbanism relies mainly on the private
market to provide diversity (Nor, 2017,
pp. 14-16; Congress for the New
Urbanism, n.d.).
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