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STUDIO INVESTIGATIONS
ANTWERP NEW SOUTH REDESIGNING STRATEGIC VACANT L A N D S C A P E S
INTRODUCTION This booklet offers an overview of the result of fourteen weeks of intensive work to design new proposals for the ‘New South’ area in Antwerp. This site in the south of the city covers 29 hectares and was formerly occupied by a railway yard. The site is bordered by a ‘spaghetti knot’ of the the Green Single ring road parkway in the southeast, the inner city in the north-east, various industrial estates in the southwest and the quays of the river Scheldt to the northwest. This exceptional strategic site is located at the intersection or juxtaposition of urban projects that will transform the city in the upcoming decades: on the one hand the project to remodel the quays of the river Scheldt (thereby improving the relation between city and river); on the other hand, the Green Singel (a large green space adjacent to the ring road and accessible from the periphery and from the inner city, connecting six existing parks). Other recent interventions such as the the new palace of justice, along with future projects (football stadium, Blue-Gate business park, etc.), are transforming the areas around the project site. The goal of the urban design studio was to develop a new urban district. This alternative to the existing masterplan has the same specific program, complete with houses, schools, offices, shops, parks and sport facilities. It has been an inter-scalar exercise, from a projective analysis of the place and its conditions, to the urban design, with special attention to the design of public space, to the definition of significant housing typologies. The course objectives are based on learning ‘urban design’, taking into account factors that are considered to be vital in all the phases of the process. It can be summarized as follows: - The interrelation and logic of different scales: from an interpretation of the landscape, to urban
design, to the architectural principles; - The design of flexible, adaptable urban structures or systems; - Sustainable development strategies and natural resource management; - Urban design as a tool for social integration, including added value for the city; - Coherence and dialogue with the pre-existing structures (density, rhythm, fabric, scale, porosity, material...) and urban fabric qualities. This Antwerp New South fall 2015 studio was the third studio organized on the Antwerp New South Area in the framework of the exchange program from HCMUARC (Vietnam) to KU Leuven (Belgium). In reflecting upon the designs that have been made, each design strongly emphasises some sort of added value to the city. This is remarkable wetland river embankment in the cases of ‘on the river bank’ and ‘get your feet wet’; these embankments are part of grand parks, which can also be found in the case of the ‘Archipelago’ design; A sequence of public spaces, ending in a huge platform over de Scheldt in the ‘Metamorphosis’ project; A truly 21st century mixed that continues well beyond the ring road, instead of modernistic divisions between productivity and dwelling in the proposal for a ‘productive & residential new south’; And finally a inhabited forest that mediates between new and existing forest structures in and around Antwerp, a forest that is both an integral part of the city, as a moment to escape it. So, in addition of being educational for the students themselves and being great dwelling environments for their inhabitants, each of the designs also offers a lot for everyone who lives in Antwerp: thereby greatly improving the city as a whole. David de Kool, January 2016 3
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ON THE RIVER BANK
building blocks, meadows, forest and embankment
17 ARCHIPELAGO dwelling in a park
23 RESIDENTIAL & PRODUCTIVE NEW SOUTH
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31 METAMORPHOSIS from the 19th century via permeabilities to the urban balcony
41 GET YOUR FEET WET how the parkway valley meets tidal rhythms
47 NEW SOUTH FOREST rule based urbanism on urban parcellation in a woodland landscape
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ON THE RIVER BANK Nguyen Son Tung
building blocks, meadows,
Nguyen Ngoc Minh Chau
forest and the embankment
The Scheldt’s embankment as a keleidoscope of landscape tissues, transitions,sedimentations and erosions. smooth green transition sharp transition scour zone depositional zone urban tissue agriculture and nature industry tidal and wetland 8
The design provides room for the river, while elaborating on and addapting the inner city urban structure.
Antwerp New South is a site of many radical transformations. Throughout history it has had several different appearances: a dynamic that is in contrast with the more static form of the inner city. It has been a fortification in various stages, a canal and a railway yard. Interestingly, no matter what function the site has served, it was strongly structured towards the Scheldt. The fort was strategically located next to the river, the canals were fed by the river water and the railways ended up perpendicular to the river bank. In this proposal for New South, this pattern is maintained both as an extension of the existing city as well as a new chapter of the Scheldt’s embankment. The Scheldt’s embankment has a kaleidoscope
of landscape tissues: sometimes it is an urban quay, sometimes a (agricultural) polder, sometimes industrial. Strangely enough, the more ‘natural’ state that has the most resilient flood protection of a tidal wetland only occurs a very few times in this estuary: the new Belgian nature reserve at Kruibeke and the Seeftinge land in the Netherlands. These wetlands are both in a sedimentation friendly, concave bend of the river: they begin and end at the point where the embankment is fully convex again. The site of New South is at such a transition area as well: here the design creates deep bays that give room to the tidal rhythm of the river, while making the embankment high enough to protect the hinterland for extreme floods. 9
1. Perimeter building blocks that elaborate on 19th century city, with a green boulevard.
2. Block structure opens up to meadows and forest from the parkway landscape.
3. A tidal embankment with two deep bays makes large scale landscape and resiliant floud protection.
The design improves and integrates Antwerp’s existing landscapes and urban typologies. As base organisational principle, a grid is defined that organises somewhat traditional perimeter blocks, typically found in Antwerp. This grid is integrated with landscapes of the forest and the meadows of the spaghetti on one side, and the riverbank and bays of the river on the other, resulting in coves of vegetation space in the grid system. Finally, a green boulevard is positioned 10
in the middle of the site, creating hierarchy in the street system and serving as a collective system for perpendicular wadi parks, interlocking with paved streets for access. The modified urban fabric has a diversity of housing typologies. These have many beautiful views over and in the distinctive landscapes: the boulevard, the wadi’s, the forest, the meadows and the wide river embankment. These milieus are the base for the system of housing
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guidelines: An apartment typology with double loaded corridors can be built at block edges that has landscape views on both sides (such as a wadi on one and the river embankment on the other); single loaded corridor if one of the sides is a normal street or enclosed courtyard and terraced housing if there is a normal street on one side and a courtyard on the other. Towers are positioned at places where the original conventional housing blocks are reduced to a minimum by the landscape infiltration. To complete the design, every resident has direct access to a underground parking garage in their 12
Embankment (far right) dyke 1 at 8,35m dyke 2 at 9,25m 50 year flood twice a year flood high tide low tide
block. Program-wise, different functions are positioned in clusters to avoid vacancy during the daytime. For instance, we incorporate commerce, offices and amenities together with housing in many of the building blocks. By removing the physical boundaries at key spatial thresholds, by improving upon the landscapes and by offering great residential quality, the site will become a new centrality with the new riverside quay park, which contributes not only to the residents but also to all the citizens of Antwerp.
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Ground floor plan | 1:2000
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Section | 1:1000
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ARCHIPELAGO Trinh Quoc Thang Pham Thi Thuy Tien Nguyen Vu Hoang Thong
dwelling in a park
The Green Singel parkway as a collector of special qualitative clusters instead of a rupture.
The site of Antwerp’s New South is an intersectional area between the parkway of the Green Singel, the Scheldt river and the centre of Antwerp. In general, the motorway is considered to be a rupture in the city, a vast borderland between the inner city (medieval and 19th century) and the former villages and 20th century parts of the city that lay outside of it. However, analysis of this Green Singel structure shows interesting sets of buildings, which look like “pebbles” in a “green river”. The majority 18
of these modernistic building types offer their users something quite unique: a view with long perspectives over a landscape, at locations that are relatively close to the centre of the city, often combined with an enjoyable local park. So, it turns out that the ‘rupture’ is (also) a collector of special and often qualitative clusters. This design takes this quality as a starting point: it is an opportunity to continue the Green Singel to meet the river. It is designed as a big vibrant park, which forms a great dwelling environment
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Slabs, u-buildings and building blocks deliniate various collective spaces with specific open space designs.
for its residents and neighbours, but also offers a fantastic recreational landscape for everyone in the city of Antwerp. The main principle in the design of the ‘Archipelago’ masterplan is to use landscape element to define clusters of housing. In order to do so, existing terrain is manipulated slightly to remake the site topography. The housing positions are on the higher levels, while long views are kept open in between. Each building in a cluster has at least two views: one to a collective space within the 20
cluster and the other to the outer park landscape. This public park is designed to be meadow land with smaller landscape element such as water ponds and clumps of trees. In contrast, the inner landscapes of the clusters tend to have a more mineral materialization. They are designed to be flexible for various community activities by using orthogonally ordered furniture elements (such as trees, tiles, benches, grass, play equipment, etc.) to delineate specific spaces and programs.
Zoom | Ground floor plan | 1:2000
Typical floor plan | 1:2000 21
RESIDENTIAL & Tran Hoang Thanh
PRODUCTIVE
Pham Duc Thinh
NEW SOUTH
Vu Minh Phuoc
Current situation: the masterplans for Blue Gate & New South, together with existing industry, create a ‘modernistic’ devision between working and dwelling.
Proposal: a new masterplan for the whole area, with a mix of residential and productive activities, not only to replace the two current masterplans, but also for future neighbouring transformations. 24
19th century building block
‘Blue Gate block‘
Proposed oversized building block
The city of Antwerp is expanding beyond its 19th century centre again, and the site of New South is one of the most important puzzle pieces to bridge the gap between what has been and what is going to happen. Although it has always been a key point at the cross of the ‘Hard Spine’ (urban) and the ‘Soft Spine’ (green space), the site has been mostly programmed and designed as an end point of both: As it is today, the residential development of
New South completes Antwerp’s inner city, which is discontinued from the rest of the city by the ring motorway. Beyond the motorway are various industries, one of them being the Blue Gate project for contemporary productivity and logistics. As the 21st century coming towards its adolescence, light industries have become a trend. With new techniques like 3D printing and automated transportation, they provide everyday products, with smaller production and logistical 25
Typological arrangement
Location of activities
Green open spaces
Guides for the proposed oversized mixed building block.
Public amenities open space quay open space dock basketball court
Infrastructure tramline tram stop cycling & pedestrian pedestrian car, 30km/u
units, but in vast amount. This creates less noise and pollution inconveniences, while being easier to establish due to its minor investment cost. It also generates specialized service employment, to create the specific programming and to design unique products. Less pollution, smaller grain, more employment: it seems like a golden opportunity to get away from the archaic divisions between working and dwelling. If we take possibilities from 21st
century productivity into consideration, we could combine the sites of New South with the project of Blue Gate and the production zone in Kiel. This would incorporate the light industry and residential areas into one urban form, something that would create vibrant opportunities for the continuity of the city of Antwerp as a whole. The spatial concept of this design is to weave the natural landscapes into the building blocks, both stretching the urban development until Kiel
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and Hoboken, as linking the various patches of nature into an ecological network. The core elements to achieve this are the oversized building blocks. They are very long and large in order to make space for a diversity of building typologies and spatial experiences. A minimum distance of 40 meters between rear facing buildings is kept as a principle to secure spatial quality: longitudinally, the connection between the natural green space and 28
landscape inside and blocks is kept throughout. A combination of different typologies, including different activities, are compacted within each block. Together, the design enables its users and inhabitants to enjoy multiple spatial experiences, ranging from open space filled with activities, to logistic street, to calm green patches in between buildings, to an active quay, to large natural pieces of greeneries.
Ground floor plan | 1:2000 29
METAMORPHOSIS Pham Hoang
from the 19th century
Pham Nu Thuc Anh
via permeabilities
Nguyen Nhat Minh
to the urban balcony
building in open space open spaces in built fabric buildings with open space around facades that define open space potential connections linear connection
Open space typologies in the contemporary city.
Located between the inner 19th century city and the outer 20th century urban areas, the site of Antwerp’s New South is a strategic location in the city’s development. The starting point of this design is to harmoniously link the city of building blocks with the parkway landscape of the Green Singel. By analysing the logic of how the open 32
spaces are defined and how they are connected with each other, we found out that open spaces in the city are defined by courtyard blocks while in new neighbourhoods outside, public spaces are often big green spaces scattering around naturally or wrapping slabs. Continuing and integrating these logics would provide a rich
1. Existing: railway traces & vegetation.
2. Structure frame, based on rail rhythm.
3. Public spine,departing from rail spine.
4. Defined space near 19th century city, around existing trees.
5. Hybrid & pearmeable space inside public spine, around exitsing trees.
6. ‘Open’ space between spine and parkway + urban balcony over the Scheldt. 33
and diverse environment for both the residents, as the surrounding neighbourhoods, as great spaces for everyone in the city of Antwerp. The main starting point of the design is to create two spines extended from the city running throughout the site. They are based on the 34
railway traces and used to connect with further parts of Antwerp. First, all of the green relics on site are embraced and combined with a new wadi system to make a continuous ‘Green Spine’. Here, new vegetation joins the landscape with existing structures along the Green Singel. The second spine plays the role of a public
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hub: it continues the long large square along Waalsekaai and Vlaamsekaai by a boulevard that traces the old railway track. It reaches far into the river Scheldt with a huge wooden platform. Typological variation is the third key part of the concept. A series of open space types with different scales and programs, with walking
and cycling paths, are integrated along the two spines. In order to make a soft transition, spaces which are more defined by courtyard blocks on the old city’s edge become more open further south and blend into the nature around slabs. The theme of transition is continued in the new quay design as well: the hard edge alongside
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Embankment analysis
Quay design
the existing city become softer and more natural towards the south west. In addition, to further improve the water system, a large proportion of the open space is kept natural and permeable. A number of infiltration ponds on the lower lands, together with the water squares are designed as a wadi system
that effectively mitigates heavy rain. Zooming out, the two spines blur the sharp hard infrastructure boundary around Antwerp city centre. It is the diversity of urban spaces with different characteristics and activities that enables interaction makes New South a unique district integrating and enriching its context. 37
Zoom 1 | Typical floor plan | 1:2000
Ground floor plan
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Zoom 2 | Typical floor plan | 1:2000
Ground floor plan From public to private in scheme and section collective space semi pulblic space public space
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GET YOUR FEET WET Nguyen Hoang Tung Cao Nhan Duc Vu Hoang Kim Qui
how the parkway valley meets tidal rhythms
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Topography change along the Green Singel. 42
Being both the starting point of the Green Single parkway landscape as well as a part of the river quay, Antwerp New South will have to be considered a development of both urban and natural coalescence. The up and down movement of tide and the kinetic topography that accompanies the traffic infrastructure could conjoin to become a new park as well as an eco landscape. When analysing parks and urban spaces that have meaning on the scale of the whole city, one notices that the quays and south-docks definitely have their potential, but that this part of Antwerp lacks a well-designed urban space of city-importance at the moment. So, first of all, it is essential that the open space for Antwerp’s New South is not merely another part of the key, an extension of the south docks or a small park, but that it is a city park in itself, a park that
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forms a gravity point on the quay and connects to other public spaces, creating a public space meaningful for everyone in Antwerp. Secondly, on a more detailed level, every apartment in this new design should have great quality, both the indoor space, as the views to the collective and public outside domains. This is achieved by a stipulation of apartments types with double height rooms, by the large public park and the spatial quality of the collective spaces if the huge building blocks. Thirdly, in learning from the topography, vegetation, buildings and infrastructure form the Green Single, this landscape is continued by creating a valley perpendicular to the Scheldt.
Moreover, these topography modifications also grasp the opportunity to create more room for the river. This adds spatial quality of a floodable landscape that has vegetation divergence and soil variation. Here, adaptive and flexible wetland brings people close to the water. Finally, these alterations can be achieved by a cut and fill method of articulating new levels of topography. By only heightening terrain with soil dug out from the site itself, there is no need for soil from somewhere else. In addition, the new housing topologies accommodate the new landscape, together making the adaptation for the long term flood protection, a great park, great views and high quality of living.
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residential & office residential & commercial school sports service centre Topography
Programme
Slabs with appartment with double high living rooms and collectave roof top terraces.
Large perimeter blocks with collective couryard and appartment typologies with double high rooms.
Zoom | Ground floor plan | scale 1:2000
Zoom | Typical floor plan 45
NEW SOUTH FOREST Tran Hai Tu
rule based urbanism
Phan Le Khanh Nhu
on urban parcellation
Ngo Nguyen Minh
in a woodland landscape
Tall trees valuable trees noise control forest
Meadow breshes pepples and grass
Soil
sandy soils rich soils gravel soils
Topography
Today’s green structure
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Foresting the Green Single & New South.
Antwerp is a city within a region with enormous traffic flows. The ground, water and air are all polluted. In short, the ecology of Antwerp is at risk and has had hardly any enhancement in recent years. When we analyse the green system of Antwerp, we can easily recognize that Antwerp has some wonderful parks and nature along the ring road and the along soutern west
bank of the river. However, they are rather disconnected. On a neighbourhood scale, the ‘New South’ area has many existing big old trees, of which some are very valuable. If we would elaborate on that, the site could be seen as a transition between the old urban area and the big forest locates further south in Antwerp. So, in order to enhance the ecology and connect
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Being inside the forest that gradually clears and opens up towards the Scheldt.
Rules on how to make clearings and how to position buildings on the forrested parcels.
A clearing with public and a collective area’s
greenery system of Antwerp, a new woodland structure could be used to develop New South as a city in forest. This forest would form an abrupt transition between ‘old’ Antwerp and the ‘new’ urbanised forest, that forms a green lung for the whole city.
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In a first step, the whole site and beyond will be planted with trees. (Except two predetermined clearing with public program.) Then, in order to be flexible for upcoming changes, a set of clearing and housing development rules are put in to place. This ensures different scenarios
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walking & cycling walking tramline tram stop pine trees
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betula pendula
school kinder garten sports hall commercial office variety of trees
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Forest arrangment
are possible in terms of building types and intensities, while maintaining the quality of the forest. The site will be divided into different parcels. On these parcels, maximum 35% of the forest can be cleared; avoiding to clear the permanent forest. After that, buildings can be built on maximum 50% of the clearings: the rest of the clearing will be a collective space.
The buildings must have underground parking on their parcel within 100 meter from the main road. Moreover, the vegetation next to the building should be low and can be maintained by the resident as a collective garden. Two buildings should not be closed to one another than than their height, to avoid shadow problems. Lastly, each building offer at least two views: to the
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Quay design: thinning of the forest towards the water, change in forest type due to richer soil and wetter condotions.
forest and to the collective clearing for example. The rules by tested on their extremes by creating different scenario’s, for instance in everyone wants to build as close to the river, or make the largest clearings. Finally, a mixed scenario was developed into a detailed design, that demonstrates the unique and qualitative living environment.
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Two typical floor plans
Zoom 2 | Ground floor plan | 1:2000
Typical floor plan
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DESIGN PROCESS
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RESEARCH GROUP URBANISM AND ARCHITECTURE
STUDIO TEAM | EDITORS PUBLICATION David de Kool Tran Trung, Vinh Bruno De Meulder PIN-UP GUEST CRITICS Erik De Deyn Cecilia Furlan Joonwoo Kim Julie Marin Wim Wambecq MID REVIEW Erik De Deyn Joris Moonen FINAL REVIEW Maud Coppenmands (City of Antwerp) Patrick Lootens (Polo Architects, Antwerp) Joris Moonen (KU Leuven & WIT Architects) Mateo Motti (Politecnico di Milano, IT) Dirk van Peijpe (De Urbanisten, Rotterdam, NL) This publication contains the results of the ‘Antwerp New South fall 2015 studio’. The studio was organized in the framework of the exchange program for 4th year bachelor students from HCMUARC (Vietnam) to KU Leuven (Belgium). © OSA Research Group Urbanism and Architecture, January 2016. Department of Architecture, K.U.Leuven Kasteelpark Arenberg 1, 3001 Leuven, Belgium ISBN: 978-94-6018-980-7
ĐẠI HỌC KIẾN TRÚC HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF ARCHITECTURE
STUDIO PARTICIPANTS Cao, Nhan Duc Ngo, Nguyen Minh Nguyen, Hoang Tung Nguyen, Ngoc Minh Chau Nguyen, Nhat Minh Nguyen, Son Tung Nguyen, Vu Hoang Thong Pham, Duc Thinh Pham, Hoang Pham, Nu Thuc Anh Pham, Thi Thuy Tien Phan, Le Khan Nhu Tran, Hai Tu Tran, Hoang Thanh Trinh, Quoc Thang Vu, Hoang Kim Qui Vu, Minh Phuoc