Upcycling Limburg, Samples of transition along the Coal Track

of Centrum Zuid contaminates and puts a high pressure on the underground water that sinks on the sides., forming sludge pounds with a high concentration of chlorine and halophile vegetation.

stagnating water on the non-permeable schist layer

Aquafin nv - water purification Bionerga nv - waste mgmt, energy RD Recylcing nv - oil recycling van Gansewinkel nv - waste mgmt, collection, sorting

Introduction of trees of the closed and covered landfill

HELCHTEREN

Foliage and fine roots Wood

R

Wood litter

R Respiration

Non-Wood litter and fast soil pools Slow soil pool Passive soil pool

Waste to Energy HOUTHALEN

C Assimilation

MAASMECHELEN 18 000 000 l. of water pumped each year = 12 000 000 l. to the network of drinking water + 6 000 000 l. of water wasted in the canal

1950’S - 1980’S Subsdience area SAND

FOREST on a former sand quarry / landfill

stagnating water on the non-permeable schist layer

CLAY non permeable soil

CHALK

UPCYCLING LIMBURG SAMPLES OF TRANSITION ALONG THE COAL TRACK K.U.Leuven, Master of Human Settlements, Master of Urbanism and Strategic Planning

Urbanism Studio (fall 2015), Central-Limburg, Belgium

MAASMECHELEN | the abandonned pine forests are not maintained anymore. Their carbon captation is negative. The soil is impoverished because of too much acidity and no sunlight.

URBANISM STUDIO STUDIO TEAM

PARTICIPANTS STUDIO

Bruno De Meulder (program director)

Rozan Amleh

Julie Marin

Claire Bosmans

Erik Van Daele

Wim Bruneel Kathleen De Beukelaer

MORE INFO ?

Ruben Cornelis Hoek

MaHS / MaUSP / EMU Master Programs

Parul Jain

Department ASRO, K.U.Leuven Kasteelpark

Israel Ketema

Arenberg 1, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium

Montouch Maglumtong

Tel: + 32(0)16 321 391

Isabelle Matton

Email: paulien.martens@kuleuven.be

Layan Mneimne Danny Andres Osorio

ISBN 9789460189814

Glenn Somers Carolina Tavares Henriques do Carmo e Silva

© Copyright by K.U.Leuven

Grace Valasa

Without written permission of the promotors and the authors it is forbidden to reproduce or adapt in any form or by any means any part of this publication.

Requests for obtaining the right to reproduce or utilize parts of this publication should be addressed to K.U.Leuven, Faculty of Engineering – Kasteelpark Arenberg 1, B-3001 Heverlee (België). Telefoon +32-16-32 13 50 & Fax. +32-16-32 19 88.

Valentine Van den Eynde

A written permission of the promotor is also required to use the methods, products, schematics and programs described in this work for industrial or commercial use, and for submitting this publication in scientific contests.

All images in this booklet are, unless credits are given, made or drawn by the authors (Urbanism Studio Coal Track, 2015).

Benjamin Vanbrabant Amaranta Vargas Mendoza Ioannis Vorgias Giovanna Pittalis GUEST CRITICS Maurice Ballard (Cleantech Greenville) Jan Boelen (Z33)

Liesl Van Autgaerden (Ruimte Vlaanderen)

Bertien Buntinx (Ruimtelijk Planner HH) Ward Verbakel (KUL/Plus Office) Jef Verpoorten (Schepen Economie en Filip Buyse (Maat Ontwerpers) Ruimtelijke Ordening HH) Inge Coelmont (Ruimte Vlaanderen) Alain Yzermans (Burgemeester Racha Daher (KUL) Houthalen-Helchteren) David De Kool (KUL) Cecilia Furlan (KUL-IUAV) Ciel Grommen (Z33) Frank Jaspers (Architectuur Depot) Igna Linten (Quares nv) Dominiek Lens (Ruimte Vlaanderen) Joris Moonen (WIT Architecten) Matteo Motti (Politecnico di Milano) Martina Muzi (Space Caviar) Barbara Roosen (ARCK) Jan Schreurs (KUL) Joke Vandebeek (milieuambtenaar HH) Johan Van den Bergh (Maasmechelen)

Studio Framework

3

Infrastructural Footprints 6 Infrastructural Systems

12

Studio Projects

20

STUDIO FRAMEWORK

TABLE OF CONTENT

In this era of resource scarcity it is mandatory to expand (the concept of) recycling to the urban and territorial scale. In this studio we investigated the potential of recycling or rethinking existing infrastructural systems in two concrete sites along Limburg’s (partially) abandoned Coal Track. It considers a cyclic interaction between human occupation and the environment in which we envision new connections between infrastructural assets and available – as much as possible renewable - resources.

In the global context of resource-depletion, a growing attention is going to preservation and reuse of materials and resources. What used to be considered as waste becomes a resource with value.

How can connecting cycles of for example waste, water and energy contribute to a region specific and diversified economy while at the same time generating alternative forms of urbanization related to for example circular economies or decentralized energy and water networks?

In this studio we explored these alternative forms of urbanization on the small and intermediate scale. We explored and developed scenarios and spatial strategies on how major transitions in waste practices, energy, water supply and carbon neutral neighbourhoods can become a lever for driving or restructuring urban development in the dispersed urbanization of Houthalen-Helchteren and Eisden/Maasmechelen.

We examined new infrastructural dependencies between urbanization and local resources, which could become drivers for the evolution of the dispersed territory as a resilient urban form. Therefore we used two perspectives in the studio: a traditional urban design approach and a systemic approach.

In the urban design approach we developed volumetric compositions, transitions between public and private, open space structures, housing types, the permeability of the site, the context as the regulatory aspect of the design... While in the systemic design approach, we explored the potential of systemic connections to reduce the need for natural resources significantly. Systemic design can translate the multiple dimensions of transitions in resource management into a feasible synthesis, and at the same time be a tool for negotiation by helping to formulate problems, agreeing on project definitions and proposing alternative strategies and concepts that deal with the problems at hand.

IMAGE SOURCE: TOP Limburg, 2015 images

Both sites, Houthalen-Helchteren and Maasmechelen/Eisden are located in the east of Flanders in the province of Limburg.

The Limburg region is a complex and multilayered territory of which the evolution led to an extreme dispersed urban structure. Originally the region was a barren landscape, almost uninhabitable. In recent history the region went through a series of economic crises, which led to different cycles of investments in infrastructures to attract industrial, commercial and research activities. At first the barren landscape was gradually transformed into an agricultural landscape. However in 1901, coal was discovered in Limburg, which drastically transformed the infrastructural landscape.

The existing railway transportation network was extended with a Coal Track Railway and the Albert Canal in order to transport the coal efficiently to Antwerp and Liège. The Coal track crosses through Central-Limburg, connecting the early 20th century mining sites. When the mines were closed in the twentieth century the main economic activity changed to car industry. Like the region adopted its infrastructure to the mines in the form of the coal tracks, the car industry resulted in a dense network of motorways to disclose the car factories. The automobile factory of Ford Genk closed end 2014 and caused the loss of 10. 000 jobs, after which initiatives like TOP Limburg were started to change the economic evolution of the region. On the one hand Limburg is focusing on knowledge and research –THOR, the knowledge axis, the valley of the Meuse...- on the other hand the region wants to play an important role as commercial centre and recreational destination in the larger territory.

In reinventing Limburg the, for a large part abandoned, coal track can play a central role in the redevelopment of the region. As a former driver of urbanization and industrial activity along its course, it connects the region’s major recreational and economic hubs. At the same time the coal track crosses nature reserves and a unique cultural landscape.

The Flemish Government and local stakeholders identified the coal track as a potential ‘recycled’ infrastructural spine for reinventing Central Limburg as a thriving economic region.

In this studio we tested the potential of the coal track as a ‘recycled’ infrastructural spine from the bottom up, in two concrete sites in transition along the coal track: HouthalenHelchteren and Maasmechelen/Eisden.

5

5 km 6

Houthalen-Helchteren

Maasmechelen

The situation around 1850’s shows an infertile plateau covered with heathland while on the other hand edges of the topography and valleys are fertile, well irrigated and covered with small villages developed along the water.

The east side of the plateau is made of fingers-like irrigation while the west side of the plateau follows an NS axis underlined by the Meuse.

Together with those natural dynamics, we can already see two trade roads with NS orientation and following the edge of the plateau: in Houthalen-Helchteren there is the ‘Grote Baan’ from Hasselt to the north and in Maasmechelen there is the road connecting Maastricht and Maaseik.

Interpretation

Map sources: Ferraris map (1775): Arcgis online Topography Belgium (2015): Arcgis online Historical maps the Netherlands (1820): http://www.kaart.edugis.nl/ Topography the NethererlandS (2015): http://www.opentopo.nl/ Fricx (1712): Arcgis online

INFRASTRUCTURAL FOOTPRINTS

Landscape structures and trade routes before 1777

Grote Baan Houthalen-Helchteren before 1939 source: http://tantelily.blogvie.com/2014/01/10/kronieken/ 7

5 km 8

Houthalen-Helchteren

Maasmechelen

Industrial activities 1930-1960 Around the 1930’s, industrial activity was located on the plateau, re-orienting the evolution of the region. Mining changed the topography at the micro scale with terrils and excavations. It modified the landscape, from heathland to pine forests and led the urban development growth with new citÊs for people working in the mines. New infrastructures were built to optimize productivity such as the canals that replaced the rivers while reinforcing the valley figures by respecting topography, or the railways, that cross the plateau to link all the mining sites.

Interpretation

Map sources: Topography Belgium (2015): Arcgis online Historical maps the Netherlands (1820): http://www.kaart.edugis.nl/ Topography the Nethererlands (2015): http://www.opentopo.nl/ Vandermaelen map (1851): Arcgis online NGI Map (1939): http://www.cartesius.be/CartesiusPortal/# Historical maps Belgium (1850): http://www.cartesius.be/CartesiusPortal/# Historical maps the Netherlands (1850): http://watwaswaar.nl/#---1-1v-1E3gYq-Aee

Eisden source: Delcampe http://www.delcampe.be/items?language=F&catLists%5B0 %5D=8892&page=1&searchString=&useAsDefault=N&layoutForm%5Blistit emsperpage%5D=50 9

5 km 10

Houthalen-Helchteren

Maasmechelen

Current situation 2015 The current map shows the construction of the highways E314/E40 and E313, which are related to the bipole Hasselt Genk. This road network allows industrial developments to take place anywhere and to spread out. We notice three different urbanization patterns: in the south, fertile land and ribbon development that surrounds the agricultural plots; in the middle, a bipolar development alongside the former industrial axis and in the north a combination of more dense cities, large open space structures on top of the Campine plateau and forest structures.

In this urban pattern structure Houthalen is related to the Bipole of Hasselt –Genk while Maasmechelen, is part of a north-south development along the canal, and thus related to Lanaken and Maastricht

Interpretation

Map sources: NGI map(2015): http://www.ngi.be/topomapviewer/public?lang=nl& Holland Map(2015): http://www.opentopo.nl/ Limburg Map (1969) Cartesius: http://www.cartesius.be/arcgis/home/ webmap/viewer.html?useExisting=1&services=01de8311ea4a4c9993d73c7 79a0b0288 Figure ground (2015) : Agiv online

Ford Genk Souce: http://s1.hbvlcdn.be/Assets/Images_Upload/2015/07/17/34c80ef82cbb-11e5-96ea-98e5cc2bbabf_web_scale_0.2419355_0.2419355__.jpg 11

“Systems thinking allows for new perspectives on (sometimes) familiar phenomena and for engagement with seemingly unrelated issues at various scale- from the micro to the macro- situated within existing and emerging structures.” _U. Sengupta and D. Iossifova, ‘Systemic diagramming’ in Architectural Design No 218, pp.

46-47, July-August 2012

CO2 STORAGE

PEAT FORMATION CO2+DEAD ORGANIC MATTER

BIONERGA

AQUAFIN

ASO T/BSO

60

National Reserve Kelchterhoef

Laambeek

90 80 70

housing Molenberg

swamp forest

mining school

Greenville

HOUTHALEN

schist

industries Centrum Zuid

swamp forest

coal track

Kempisch Plateau

land fill Remo

Max Rainfall 80 mm Max raining days 12 days Aug / Dec

mining heritage Houthalen

33,4 IN USE

90 80 70 60

50

50

40

40

30

30

REMO

12

20

20

10

10

Central-Limburg is marked by traces of different development eras. Massive industrial investment (coal and sand extraction, car and other manufacturing) and new techniques accelerated a ‘shock and wave’ urbanization that radically altered environment and landscape (Van Acker 2014).

INFRASTRUCTURAL SYSTEMS

Water, energy, waste, mobility, education and forest

In order to gain an understanding of the role of the site within regional infrastructural systems, students looked at their respective site and program through the lens of different (infrastructural) systems (e.g. water (subsidence areasdrinking water), waste (landfills, waste processing, wastelands, brownfields), energy (blackouts, energy generation, …), transportation (commuters, goods), education, employment, …).

Early twentieth century coal mining generated a specific productive, social and cultural landscape, with the mining sites and the remarkable garden districts that soon however were followed by more diluted and generic forms of urbanization eroding the unique and strong coal colonization.

Each system is composed of material ‘flows’ (e.g. water, people, energy, …) as well as physical infrastructures supporting the production, transportation and evacuation of these flows.

Focus was especially put on the interrelation between each system, the production of space and the traces left in the territory (occupation, transformation, …).

The subsequent eras of Central-Limburg development not only altered the physically perceivable landscape, but also dramatically altered Central-Limburg’s ‘metabolism’. Subterranean coal extractions resulted in subsidence areas that disturb still today the region’s water flows. Production and distribution of energy, was first linked to the places of coal extraction before being absorbed in centralized energy systems. Open heath lands were transformed in pine forests for the production of wood to be used in mining activities.

The goal is to reveal visible and invisible forces that act on the site and produce its spaces. Students worked across systems to understand and experiment with systemic linkages between their sites and larger regional patterns to identify potentials for public investment on a larger scale and develop working hypotheses for the future of their site, inscribed in bigger regional dynamics

Other infrastructural systems or networks such as education and mobility are often the result of regional logics, but how do they embed in local contexts?

By going back and forth between different scales, from local to regional/national, students built an understanding of systemic linkages and the potential for systemic design in their site.

CO2 O2

RECREATIONAL

Julianakanaal

Belgium Maas

Het Greven

Zuid-Willemsvaart

terrils Eisden housing Maasmechelen

alluvial

zo ne

ground water zone 1

zone 2

zone 3

sub si

de

nc e

zone 2

ing

protection zone 3

sand

min

coniferous forest

MAASMECHELEN

the Netherlands

T/BSO Max Rainfall 72.3 mm Max raining days 20 days Aug / Dec

national park

mixed forest

industry

white sand quarry N27

coal track

As

terrils Zwartberg

water reservoir

34,9

ASO

clay

13

Houthalen: cultivating the edge of the Campine plateau 1897

1969: Coal Mining Infrastructure

The map shows limited urbanization on the plateau. The settlements on the plateau are exceptional. The north-south infrastructure and the rail line 18 are already installed.

Coal Mining activity starts in 1927 but the first coal extraction was only in1939, making Houthalen Helchteren the most recent mine site of the seven mines in Flanders. The coal industry drastically changed the small scale urban structure: a large railway terminal was installed in a former water-sick area, the site was connected by rail to the Albert Canal for transportation of coal to Liège and Antwerp. A slag heap was formed together with a sludge basin and a workers garden citÊ, connected to the extraction site via the Koolmijnlaan, and almost doubled the urban fabric.

14

Planning

The mine closed in 1992. The water-sick area was rationalised by extending the Campine Plateau flattening the mining slagheap.

As a result the site became an impermeable industrial surface equipped with abandoned infrastructures such as the coal railway track, partially abandoned, partially in use and partially converted into a bicycle path.

After the closing of the car industry in Genk nearby Houthalen Helchteren plans were made to turn the mining site into a cleantech campus, of which Greenville is the first realised project. Furthermore the congestion of the Grote Baan, the historic road connecting Limburg to Eindhoven and cutting Houthalen in two, is addressed in two plans.

On the one hand there is the plan for an underpass as a public space crossing the Grote Baan. On the other hand there is the plan to deviate the Grote Baan with an entrance to Houthalen through the Cleantech campus.

And finally there is the Spartacus project, a high speed tram infrastructure that might have a stop in Houthalen.

One of the envisaged stops is at the edge of the cleantech campus.

TWO SITES IN TRANSITION

2015

SOURCES: Map Belgium in 1873 (through www.cartesius.be) Map Belgium in 1969 (through www.cartesius.be) Present situation: TOP 10 map Future planning: Presentatie_28 september 2015_26_09.pdf by dienst stedenbouw HH 15

Maasmechelen: in between Maas and Campine plateau 1780’s

Maasmechelen is a small settlement in between the agricultural landscape of the valley of the Meuse and the heath landscape of the Campine plateau. It is one of many scattered villages along the north-south infrastructure along the Meuse. The relation to the plateau is less evident as the topography is articulated and steep.

16

1960’s

Present

Coal industry was founded in 1907 and extraction started in 1922.

It changed the tiny populated area as an enormous labour force was attracted extending the village with a new high quality garden citĂŠ, a rail infrastructure for both coal and people to the Zuid Willems vaart, the Albert canal and the surrounding region.

The mine closed in 1987, leaving the site and infrastructure abandoned. The mine subsidence had a dramatic spatial effect in Maasmechelen. The Zuid Willemsvaart crosses the subsidence and is kept horizontal by means of retaining walls, resulting in a nine metre barrier between the two sides of the village. Furthermore the subsidence became an underground basin of drinkable water that is partly distributed in the regional water network and partly dumped in the vaart. The site the students study is at the edge of the southern tangent of the coal track and more related to the forest on the plateau.

After the closing of the car industry Maasmechelen chose to attract large-scale commercial and recreational programs, resulting in the shopping centres M2 and Maasmechelen Village and the forest and former mining site as recreational destinations.

Maasmechelen wants to value the natural aspect of the surrounding forest and the Meuse valley by means of landscape corridors between the plateau and the Meuse. The edge of the forest, the site the students worked on is considered as a zone for care programs such as housing for the elderly.

SOURCES: Ferraris map (1775): Arcgis online 1830-1850,Instelling:Kadaster,kaartnummer: 60_1rd,TOPOGRAFISHE KAART,Netherlands.http://watwaswaar.nl/ TOP 10 map and TOP50raster, www.pdok.nl 1955,Instelling:Kadaster,kaartnummer: 59H,TOPOGRAFISHE KAART Maasmechelen 1959,Instelling:Kadaster,kaartnummer: 60C, TOPOGRAFISHE KAART Netherlands, http://watwaswaar.nl/ 17

SITE VISITS AND STAKEHOLDERS Houthalen-Helchteren

The future site of Houthalen’s Cleantech Campus

The Coal railway track in Houthalen

The Zuid-Willemsvaart in Maasmechelen

Forests at the edge of Maasmechelen

Maasmechelen

18

Central-Limburg

19

Situating the design proposals

IMAGE SOURCE: TOP Limburg, 2015 20

Designing urban frameworks for transition in Houthalen-Helchteren and Maasmechelen

The following part shows design scenarios, which envision the metamorphosis of Houthalen-Helchteren and Maasmechelen towards a more sustainable future.

In a first phase, the region between Houthalen-Helchteren and Maasmechelen was explored in a systemic catalogue on waste, water, infrastructure, forest and education. The catalogue was synthesised in a transect showing the flows and cycles of exchange, tying the region together. In a second phase these exchanges were studied in detail on both sites. The objective was to explore the spatial impact of these exchanges both on a regional and local scale.

In the design phase the evolution of the region and the sites are imagined. Based on the transect, strategies of cut and fill, intermediate space, educational networks and a chain of exchange circuits are developed. These general strategies become specific spatial frameworks addressing the design challenges on both sites. In Houthalen Helchteren the framework has to deal with the impermeable soil, the edges of the plateau, the relation between the plateau and the swamp forest, the city centre and

STUDIO PROJECTS

Envisioning Transition

the projected infrastructures. While in Maasmechelen the framework is determined by the evolution of the forest, the relation between the forest and the coal track, the water management and a concept for the edge(s) of the city. For each site there is a desired program: in Houthalen Helchteren a clean tech campus and in Maasmechelen service flats and housing. Both programs are tested and questioned. At the same time these tests reveal the potential and maximum load of the proposed framework.

Each project is the result of continuously crossing scales in order to understand and to envision the metamorphosis of the territory and the sites towards a more sustainable future. The schematic section has been explored as a tool in order to incorporate the aspects of time and process when envisioning new cycles of mobility, energy, water, ‌ as a way to discard the mono functional and segregating nature of contemporary infrastructures. Besides revealing before and after conditions, these sections show the intermediate scale of new transversal relationships between different environments.

21

Profiling Cyclic Landscapes Cut and fill as a tool to frame transition in Central Limburg Kathleen De Beukelaer, Grace Valasa, Valentine Van den Eynde, Amaranta Vargas Mendoza

Central Limburg is shaped by past and current large-scale interventions, such as mining and quarry industries. This led to think of Limburg as a landscape of resources: materials are extracted, processed and taken away, leaving scars behind. The region has been laid out as a series of cut-and-fill landscapes. Each phase of intervention resulted in structuring figures, such as terrils, mining citĂŠs, forest and subsidence zones; leading to new preconditions that frame local dynamics. Opportunities lie in a more local approach of cut-and-fill as a way to introduce transitions towards a cyclic framework.

Flattening the terril created the industrial plateau in Houthalen. By using cut-and-fill as a spatial strategy, micro topography is installed, creating a structure of multilayered islands. In between the edges, a water corridor (cut) is introduced; creating a “fill� that guides other systems, such as energy and mobility. Along this network sequences of urban infrastructure are implemented while areas of friction between the islands become a platform of exchange for the systems to plug in. As a result a spatial structure is formed that frames public spaces and potential densification.

Embedded in a different evolution, Maasmechelen has a strong north-south orientation, enhanced by a juxtaposition of forest, protection boundaries, sudden steep topography, urbanisation limits, mobility infrastructure, water protection, flooding areas and the Meuse. A juxtaposition characterised by edges between its different elements, revealing strategic locations at friction points.

Dynamics of the forest itself (types of trees) as well as existing infrastructures (roads and corridors) create a framework for clearings that is linked to a small-scale infrastructural loop. The cuts in the forest lead to new ways of interacting with the surroundings: ranging from leisure, to a conscious and autonomous choice for living in a forest.

The two approaches act as a reflection on the Campine plateau figure, which is characterized by two different edge conditions.

On the East, the strong topography follows the Meuse riverbed and is embedded in a large-scale forest figure. On the West, the topography is softer and supports a patchwork of landscape fragments. With the coal track as a common line of gathering interventions and landscapes, both the island system as a fill and the clearings network as a cut, embrace local specificity as well as regional characteristics.

Microtopographies Centrum-Zuid 22

23

Systemic transect

2015

2030

Houthalen-Helchteren 24

Maasmechelen 25

From leftover to urban interface Diversifying infrastructure bundles Roze Amleh, Claire Bosmans, Layan Mneymne, Carolina Tavares, Benjamin Vanbrabant

Inherited from its natural conditions the Campine plateau has become a collage of different (monofunctional) autonomous urban fabrics. Between the various landscape features there are specific distances; these act as mediating spaces absorbing the tensions between the fragments. Infrastructures serving a regional logic run through these in-between spaces. At the local scale of Houthalen-Helchteren and Maasmechelen, they generate leftover, undesigned urban fragments.

The project proposes to turn some of these open spaces into positive interfaces.

In Houthalen, a broad leaves forest structures the edge of the Campine plateau, which collides in Centrum Zuid, with the artificial schist platform. This forest absorbs the tensions generated by the industrial activities at the border of the city and supports ecological water dynamics. A series of high-tension lines, originating from the industrial platform, generates neglected empty spaces. Local programs, on strategical spots, reverse the default backside conditions into new fronts, promoting local energy exchanges, alternative mobilities and ecological dynamics in between incompatible urban/industrial typologies.

In Maasmechelen and the village of Eisden, the industrial leftovers (coal track, coal harbour, canal) turn the city into unrelated urban pieces and fragments. They interrupt the natural water movements and generate perturbed areas and wastewater. The design integrates these leftovers into a new local dynamic, using the excess water as a tool to recompose and connect the static urban fragments.

Finally, the overall design makes room for a pallet of alternative urbanities incorporating mixed housing and working units.

26

27

Systemic transect

Houthalen-Helchteren 28

Maasmechelen 29

CIRCULAR RETROFITS New territories of exchange for the coal track region Glenn Somers, Ruben Hoek, Parul Jain, Ioannis Vorgias, Wim Bruneel

Central Limburg´s coal track remains as relict of the mining era. It represents a shared identity of the mining towns along it, which eroded since the closing of the mines. Rather than as a physical connector on the regional scale, our project sees the coal track as a resource of space that can be reused to serve local demands. A series of retrofitted urban structures can emerge along the track.

In this way the track facilitates exchange to support local variants of a new circular economy. As a result the track functions as a nucleus for new local identities. In the site studies presented here, the retrofitted urban structures take the form of a loop.

In Houthalen-Helchteren this loop is the device to restructure business area Centrum-Zuid and support the transition towards a ‘clean tech’ identity. By rethinking the existing street profiles in strategic locations, space is made available to retain rainwater, accommodate more sustainable transport modes and set up a versatile network of energy exchange. In addition, this loop should offer qualitative public spaces, ranging from shared meeting spaces to larger polyvalent squares in industrial environments.

Densification of ‘clean tech’ businesses takes place around the loop.

The loop of Maasmechelen frames a series of interfaces between the town and the relicts of the industrial era: rail track, harbour and forest; while a new interface between the forest and the town can allow for activating the forest to produce food, timber and energy locally. An interface between the town and the canal in the form of a park offers Maasmechelen a qualitative open space where social events can take place. The loop, carrying sustainable mobility and infrastructures, then emerges as a spatial binder of sociocultural activities and local production and consumption.

30

31

Systemic transect

local water circulation

agroforestry principles

alley cropping

predominantly pine

miXed or broad leaf

forest farming

irregular / small

big / regular

silvopasture

low tree density / empty

high tree density

forestry waste to energy tree species

plot siZe & form

productive forest

Maasmechelen 32

tree density

forest-town interface

water-cycle path bundle as edge

layered mobility scheme

local production-consumption cycles

establishing tram connection

comfortable slow mobility crossings

harbor as a public space

33

Systemic transect

Houthalen-Helchteren 34

35

Learning landscape Establishing a knowledge economy/network Danny Andres Osorio Gaviria, Giovanna Pittalis, Isabelle Matton, Isreal Ketema, Montouch Maglumtong

“Learning Landscape” takes advantage of the local unemployment and school dropout in Limburg to redefine new typologies of a learning environment where the productive status of knowledge is emphasized. Currently, the main poles of education are centralized in both Genk and Hasselt. The goal is thus to decentralize the existing educational system towards a broader “knowledge network”, supported by the infrastructure of the coaltrack.

Indeed, the coaltrack has the potential to constitute an interesting backbone for an educational platform that interweaves technical schools with industries and natural environment and increases the availability of such a service to a broader community.

On the one hand, Houthalen is developing a new cleantech Campus in the industrial area of Centrum-Zuid. It offers the opportunity to mix activities in the homogeneous industrial tissue and embed it in the residential fabric of its surrounding. Maasmechelen, on the other hand already conceals a few technical schools. Its main asset is the forest. We redefine this peripheral forest landscape into a collective space, a crossing point between production and education.

More than recycling existing industrial sites and its infrastructure, the project is about converting it into a vast educational network.

It creates a grid that enables communication and cooperation between multiple urban actors and provides them with a better grasp on their surrounding natural environment.

36

A territory shaped by different natural linearities and crossed by hard infratructural elements from which we can point out strategic crossing points for further development of the region.

37

Systemic transect

2015

Typology housing/working

2030 Houthalen-Helchteren 38

irrigation and crop system

reclaiming public space for education

Maasmechelen 39

40

41

Eisden Coal Mine

Houthalen Coal Mine

Heat Energy URBANISM Fall 2015

Houthalen Coal Mine closed

STUDIO

1960’s

Pine forests’ LIFESPAN:

This studio engages with the government’s agenda Timber to be used into the coal mines to produce revive Limburg’s (partially) abandoned coal trackheat as energy.

30 years to grow to maturity a regional ‘connector’ and ‘collector’ of soft mobility, <tpelandes.canalblog.com> recreational and economical connectivity, but also as ecological corridor and ‘smart’ distributor of HOUTHALEN HELCHTEREN recovered resource flows (heat, water, energy, …).

Through systemic design, two local development plans along the coal track will be envisioned within Central-Limburg’s ambition to be a forerunner in the transitions towards a less resource-dependent region.

closed Sand quarries -Landfills

MAASMECHELEN

Leftovers from the coal extraction -Slag Heaps

Houthalen Slag heaps flattened -Centrum Zuid 1979

REMO landfill closed & covered with fertile soil -Forest

21 676 800 tons of coal

Coal extraction: Industrial purposes (iron) Domestic heating SAND QUARRY SAND CLAY non permeable soil

CHALK

COAL MINING COAL 600 to 860 m under the ground