CONTEXT
Ghent is in the interior north-east side of Belgium and the second largest city of Belgium after Brussels, its population is around 260,600 people, and it is a major hub for students in the country for its educational and university system and is characterised by its diverse population of foreigners. In history, it was a flourishing port city and famous for its textile industry, especially during theindustrialrevolution.However,thecityhaschangeddrastically due to heavy industries along the canals, and with the rise of car use many of those canals were turned to roads. ButinRecentyearstherehasbeenafightbacktoasustainablecity,and now the city is turning green when around 35% of its residents use bicycles instead of cars, and many of those roads werebroughtbacktobecanalsagain.Afrikalaanisnodifferent,itis an industrial area located next to the olddocksofthecity EffortsfromSogentinconjunction with several investors and ownersoftheareaatthedocksareaimingtochangetheareaintoa liveable neighbourhood. Our concept and aim are to patch this area back again to thecity,to give it a new life departing from its identity and memories, by preserving some of its warehouses and buildings, and adding new housing trying to covertheshortageofsocialand affordable housing the city is in need in addition to provide business and entrepreneurship opportunities.
GHENT
The city adopted a circulation plan in 2017 which ensured more space for pedestrians and cyclists, a safer environmentaswellasamoreefficientcitycentrewithfewertrafficjams.As for the Public Network, it is very well distributed and provides good service,especiallyafter the circulation plan, they introduced a system of Park-Ride to ensure a better circulation network with less traffic. As for Afrikalaan and its surroundings, there areseveralbuses,just across the canal the main tram line 5 passes and makes connections with Bus line6whichis theonlyBusthatpassesthroughAfrikalaan.
In terms of bike circulation, around 35% of Ghent inhabitants don’t have cars, they enjoy taking bikes instead. Most of the city roads have bike lanes, however, there is no special
infrastructure for bikes. Some roads in the city centre, can’t be driven by nor a Bike or acar (unlessforresidents).Butthebikescanbewalkedby.
Ghent City has a fair number of parks and playgrounds, in a smallsize.Butitcanbenoticed that it’s not enough for the city residents to enjoyamorenaturalfeelingofgreenareasinside their city As for functions and public use, we can observe these functions in five subcategories which are health, education, accommodation, finance/commercial, and social activities. However, near the Afrikalaan area, none of these functions are available except commercial ones. These commercial functions are also related to the industrial fabric of the site.Therefore,itdoesnotcontainthefunctionsneededforpublicuse.
DEMOGRAPHY
Ghent is the largest city in the Flemish region and the 3rd largest city of Belgium after the capital Brussels and Antwerp. The estimated population of Ghent is around 263,927. The population of the citycanbefurthersegregatedbasedongenderinwhichthemalepopulation makes up 49.8% and female population makes up 50.2% of the total population. Ghent is a youngcitywithanaverageageof39.Itisalsohometoalargenumberofpeoplefromforeign origin and immigrants. Ghent is the industrial and educational centre of Belgium and many people in Ghent are students and people who are called “Ghent users” or the people who come to the city for jobs. The estimated numbers of students and the Ghent users are70,000 and 95,000 respectively. The density of the city is around 1690/km2 with the average householdsizeof2.4.
The demography of the Afrikalaan district however shows a different trend. The population of the area is shrinking due to the industrial activity and lack of housing in the area. The Population of the district was little under 1000 inhabitants which has not dropped to almost 850in2020.
Imagesource:citypopulationbe
HOUSINGANALYSIS
Housing is one of the major issues of the city of Gent like many other European cities. The housing market needs special attentiontoaccommodatethepeopleandovercomethehousing needs. Ghent is a part of a developed region which makes it a good and attractive choice to live and the population of the city is growingaswell.Thesemacro-economicactivitiesalong with the migration have put Ghent into a housing crisis over the past 15 years. The city is
facing a new demand to provide affordable housing to its residents. But it has less adequate housing units to accommodate its population especially the vulnerable ones (single parent familiesandtherefugeesetc).
Affordability is one the main issues of the housing market in Ghent.Itisthemainchallenge to overcome the housing crisis effectively and easily. The property prices have gone up, nearly doubled during the last decade and that is the reason most of the people in the city don’t own a house. Most of the people live in the cityastenantsandpayalmost30%oftheir income paying therent.Almost50.3%ofthehouseholdsinthecityliveastenants.According to a Flemish housing survey “The average private rent in thecityin2017was625Euro.Due tothehighpropertypricestheprivatehousingisoutofreachforlow-incomepeople.Notonly this but the housing units are in veryvulnerableconditionsinmostoftheareasandtheyneed urgent renovation. According to a research article “Urbact” there are almost 35,000 housing unitswhichneedurgentrenovation.
Apart fromaffordablehousingunits,socialhousingisindemandinthecityaswell.Genthas the largest social housing number than any otherFlemishcityoftheregionbutstillthesocial housing needs extra attention because of its high demand. According to the research article “Urbact” 1 out of 5 inhabitants in gent lives in a social housing and there are almost 10,000 people whoareonthewaitinglist.Theaveragewaitingtimeforsocialhousingisaround3-10 years.Therefore,thecityneedsmorehousingunits.
The housing data of Ghent shows that there are almost 143,000 housing units in the city of Ghent and most housing stock of Ghent is made of tenants. Forexample,studenttenantsand privatetenants.Around60,000peopleownahouseandalmost13,000peopleliveinsocial housing. But the overall aim of the city is to produce 8,500 new housing units inthenext10 yearstoaccommodatethepeopleandovercomethehousingcrisis.
The housing stock is further divided according to the typology of the houses. Thedatafrom Burrtmonitor shows that most of the houses in the city are thesingle-familyhousesfollowed by the apartment buildings which make up almost 39% of the total housing stock of Ghent. Apart from the apartment buildings there is also a small number of residential accommodationsinthetradinghousesandotherbuildingsaswell.
After the analysis of the housing needs and housing conditions ofGhenttheproposalforthe neighbourhood design was made according to the following housingtypologies.Thehousing sectorwillbedividedinto3sectorswhicharegivenasfollowing:
● Freemarkethousing
● Socialhousing
● Affordablehousing
Each housing category willbefurthermadeofapartmentbuildingsandgroundboundhouses with private gardens. The housing blocks will be further developed using the courtyard corridor system method where the private green spaces will be segregated from the semi-public and public open spaces. Also, the housing typologies will also be integrated together. Each block will contain ground bound and the apartment buildings to create a
well-integrated neighbourhood. Apart from purely residential units few mixed buildings will also be given to integrate the small businesses and commercial activities along with the housing.
AFRIKALAAN LANDUSE
The area has a wide variety of functions and building types. Two large industrial sites from the heart of the area, namely Christeyns nv and Triferto nv, separated from eachotherbythe Verapaz bridge to be constructed. Around these two companies there are several smaller business sites with an extensive range of economic activities, ranging from storage to sales and maintenance of cars to clean offices. Housing is concentrated in the two apartment buildings of the Scandinaviastraat. At the foot of these buildings are located several stores. The social housing oftheLübecksitehasrecentlybeendemolished.Thesiteistemporarilyin use as a city farm. Like the functional composition, the morphology of the area is also very diverse. The business sites mainlyhaveasingle-layeredstructure.Thebuildingdensityvaries from site to site.Thehigh-risebuildingsoftheScandinavianStraitclearlyformalandmarkin thespacioussurroundings
MAININDUSTRIALSITES
POINTSOFVIEW
● Ph1:Southentrance
● Ph2:MidAfrikalaanstr
● Ph3:MidAfrikalaanst
● Ph1:Northentrance
● Ph2:Aziesstrentrance
● Ph3:MidOceanstr
● Ph1:Koovardijlaan
● Ph2:MidKoovardijlaan
● Ph3:EndKoovardijlaan
SWOTANALYSIS
STRENGTHS
● Strategiclocationoverthedocksandthecanal.
● NexttoanimportantrailwaystationofDamport.
● PrimaryAfrikalaanRoad.
● Emptylotssuitableforinterventions.
● Industrialheritagehistory.
● Createsabufferzone.
WEAKNESSES
● Marginalisedarea,littleinteractionwithsurroundings.
● Noproperinfrastructureforsustainabledevelopment.
● AdominantIndustrialandretailarea.
● Highlevelofsoilcontamination.
● Lowconcentrationofhousing.
● HighlevelofnoisefromtheprimaryroadAfrikalaan.
OPPORTUNITIES
● Waterenergisedsustainableprojects.
● Cancoveragoodamountforsocialhousing.
● Easilydevelopedtransportationsystem.
● Cancovertheneedforapublicopenarea.
● Canhostseveraltypesoffunctions.
THREATS
● Riseoftherentalprices.
● Peopleabandoningthearea.
● Difficultyincommunicatingbetweenseveralactors
● oftheindustrialandtheretailfunctions.
● Lackofcollaborationbetweenthecommunity.
