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

respectively. The strategy will use the interplay between the set the rampart, the
traffic artery, and the park, as its main design approach – the three paradigms
which Antwerp used to define its city in the past. An interplay that enables it to
also establish cultural, recreational, climatic, and historical links throughout
the regions of the metropole.
The strategy proposed in this study is separated into (1) the metropolitan
region, (2) the suburban region, and (3) the inner-city region. For the first
(1), the strategy establishes a green belt around the city through the interaction
of the set; limits the growth of the periphery with the appointment of ecological
and economic radials; and positions the fortification spiral as the third structuring
element besides Antwerp’s radial-concentric system, to add a cultural, historic,
and recreational connection throughout the metropole. The second (2),
positions the inner fortification belt as a green necklace that links the various
economic, cultural, recreational, and ecological zones in the region together,
and defines the edge of the suburban region; and devises a polycentric
strategy in which the current radial shaped economic carriers in the region are
attached to the ring zone on one side, and the fortification belt on the other.
Thus, maintaining a serving function and spatial relation to the city. The third
(3), uses the water element of the ramparts to give thematic direction to the
ring park, with an inundation area on the left and small-scale water structures
on the right, which strengthens climate resilience, ecology, and heritage. And
finally, Linkeroever, Burcht, and Zwijndrecht are expanded by reading historical
and present structures, to root them more in their own history, and establish a
connection to the city.