Kinga Murawska _ Portrait of a city _ TU Delft Urbanism

Bergen op Zoom Kinga Murawska

k.murawska@student.tudelft.nl student number 5160103 quarter 1 fall 2019 tutor Luisa Maria Calabrese

Bergen op Zoom Atlas first impressions urbanized landscapes urban form open city conclusion references

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first impressions What should I expect from the city?

Field trip 5th September 2019

Two months ago Bergen op Zoom was for me, a person who just moved to the Netherlands, a mystery, just a name of a city located somewhere in the south of the country.

Starting our journey to knowing Bergen op Zoom, we went on a field trip. I was curious what qualities the city has. I wanted to experience the city and find a quest I will follow to understand the processes that occurred there.

When we arrived, there was an aura of calm and serenity in the old part of the city. People were slowly strolling along market stands, seeming not to notice occasional rainfall, appreciating unusually buzzing streets.

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Wandering off further from the old town, there was a noticeable transition from a phonaesthetics of people’s conversations to cacophony of passing cars and sudden gusts of wind.

The impression I got while exploring the city was that, unlike the old town encouraging locals to spend their free time outside, most of the areas seemed to be too monofunctional to do so.

Coming from a small town in Poland, spending last two years in Copenhagen and visiting many places in the world, I am more and more fascinated by the quality of life cities represent. In this atlas I analyse different indicators of this notion in Bergen op Zoom.

sketches from the old town

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urbanized landscapes What are the factors that determined the character of the city?

What is the relation between these factors?

What is the significance of them?

Bergen op Zoom, as many other Dutch cities, is located by the water. This powerful element always significantly impacts city’s economy, its importance in the international trade, development of the city, its history as well as its inhabitants.

A recent research has shown that “blue space� in the urban environment can positively influence quality of life (White, Alcock, Wheeler & Depledge, 2013). Researchers have carried out the experiment showing people images with smaller and bigger amount of waterscape in them and found that people prefer the latter. They later examined the data of self-reported health status in relation with

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a postcode of interviewees and concluded that people living closer to the coastline are healthier.

Another important factor that shapes the way we experience the city is climate.

From a perspective of everyday life, it is the weather that matters and impacts the quality of life, whereas in a long-time perspective it is the occurrence of natural hazard or the issue of climate change that can strongly influence the city.

There is a strong relation between both of the factors. Proximity of water influences climate - including temperature - and climate influences water - including sea level.

sketches illustrating waterscape of Bergen op Zoom

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water - land What is the relation between the water and the land?

How did it change throughout the time?

What influenced this relation?

Proximity to the river Scheldt gave the city strength and a possibility to become an important fortress in the history of The Netherlands. The city was surrounded by marshes which guaranteed defence. Bergen op Zoom developed in a safe distance from the river, respecting variable character of the water.

These two lived in harmony with each other.

There were floods, but since the city was developed on the hill, they were affecting mainly lowlands around the city. (Kraker, 2006)

past marshes 06

The relation changed in 1953, when the North Sea flood occurred, causing great harm to the country. The Netherlands not wanting to live under threat of another harmful flood, introduced program “Delta Works�, whose main point was to shorten the coastline by creating dikes, dams, sluices and canals.

These works - completed in Bergen op Zoom in 1984 - resulted in changes in water systems, created fresh water lakes and influenced ecosystems and tides of rivers.

North Sea flood 1953

present dikes + canal

1800

1950

2000

In the past River Scheldt had several estuaries, including Eastern Scheldt by whose bank Bergen op Zoom was developed.

Until St. Felix’s Flood of 1530 it was the major mouth of the river Scheldt. After that flood occurrence some of the lost land

was reclaimed and the link between Eastern Scheldt and the rest of the river was narrowed to a channel called the Kreekrak. It was later filled with silt and eventually closed in 1867 because of the construction of the railway embarkment.

For a long time the city was framed by the water, the development was dependent on it. After completion of Delta Works the situation changed, the city framed the water, became seemingly independent, developed further by reclaiming the land.

past - water framing the city

present - city framing the water

future - possible flood occurrence

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climate - activity How the climate influences the city?

What is the relationship between the climate and the quality of life?

The weather in the Netherlands changes rapidly. When we imagine a Dutch cityscape and compare it with the one from the southern Europe, we could see similar elements shaping the streets but they would be experienced differently because of the weather conditions.

Climate is an unreliable factor influencing the character of the city. Studies showed that aspects such as the amount of daylight and rain strongly influence the levels of activity in the urban areas and consequently

average precipitation (mm/month) 08

people’s health and well-being (Tucker & Gilliland, 2007). Weather has also a great impact on the physical environment - ratio of outdoor to indoor public spaces.

Climate can pose a threat to the urban areas. The occurrence of natural hazards, that happened several times in the history of Bergen op Zoom, caused insecurity among the population which they dealt with by building “a wall”. What will happen if humans continue to behave in this arrogant manner?

average number of rainy days

average number of sunshine | length of a daytime

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portrait Triptych Past - Present - Future

Since our group worked as one team aiming at achieving consistency in presenting outcomes of our quests, the medium of each partial portrait is the same for everyone in the group.

The medium of the portrait for “urbanized landscapes� theme is triptych consisting of a collage, a photograph and a quote.

In this portrait I wanted to show the relationship between the climate, the city and the time. Each part belongs to different

collage 10

part of time - collage to the past, photograph to the present and quote to the future.

The collage illustrates the importance water had in the past and its power over the city.

Layer with water lines and a timeline refers to the changes of waterscape throughout time.

The photograph pictures the atmosphere of the city with its cloudy sky and the development on the reclaimed land in the background.

The quote encourages to reflect upon the future and our impact on the climate.

photograph

quote

“We are the first generation to feel the sting of climate change, and we are the last generation that can do something about it.�

Jay Inslee

urban form City as an ecosystem How relationships between different components of urban ecosystem shaped the form of the city?

Cities are complex social-ecological systems.

They consist of three groups of interdependent components: biological, social and built

(Pickett, Cadenasso, Childers, Mcdonnell & Zhou, 2016). First relation that occurs is connected

with importance of natural(biological) components influencing the location of new built environment. Whether it was proximity to water or altitude, people’s choice of a place to settle was always affected by different qualities that nature represented.

In the case of Bergen op Zoom it was a relatively hilly terrain (Brabantse Wal) and a proximity of the river Scheldt that had an impact on the city’s location. It guaranteed safety and importance in the trade.

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Built components of the city, such as buildings and public spaces, are in the strong relationship with social components, with people and their lifestyle. Quality and accessibility of these places determine whether people choose to spend their time outdoor or indoor.

As mentioned in the previous chapter the climate (part of nature) influences the built environment as well as the wellbeing of people.

The North Sea flood of 1953 was a disturbance to Bergen op Zoom ecosystem and caused pronounced changes in the relationship between the city and the water, that were followed by the city’s extension and population growth by 39% between 1995 and 1997.

interrelationships between natural, social and built components of the city ecosystem

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change over time How the city ecosystem developed throughout years?

What is the future of this ecosystem?

The relationships between different components changed over time. The fluctuation in the importance of each element and its dominance over others influenced how the city was shaped.

In the beginning the nature dictated the development of the city and overshadowed the social and built components. People built the city on the hill and surrounded it with ramparts to keep it safe. The fortress was dismantled from 1868 to 1890 and the new settlements

19th century 14

appeared in all the areas surrounding the old town, except for the part on the west, which was filled with easily flooded polders.

The city used to be connected to the water by only one link - Fort Waterschans. This state changed after the construction of the Scheldt– Rhine Canal, which led the city to develop new areas closer to the water. Industrial area plays a significant role in the economy of Bergen op Zoom but it is currently separated from the rest of the city. Could it be changed?

mid-20th century

21st century

1900

1930

2019

1860

1960

2005

1990

1970

0,5 km

future

0,5 km

spatial development of the city over time | 1:25000

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perception of space What are the factors that influence our perception of space?

How the experience of urban mosaic changed?

The infrastructure not only links different parts of the city, it also plays an important role in shaping quality of life. People spend significant part of a day commuting, going to work, to school, to a shop or going for a walk.

Each of these activities happen within city’s streets but the way in which they influence us can substantially differ depending on the time when they were built and what design principles were followed then. The indicators presented below impact our perception

width of the streets 16

(lack of) nature

of the built environment. In Bergen op Zoom, as mentioned in the beginning of the atlas, the city centre is an area that is perceived to be the most attractive. It displays several characteristics that help livability, such as narrow profiles of streets, presence of restaurants and shops on the ground level of the buildings and no car traffic. The monofunctional housing neighbourhoods also seemed pleasant though represented different qualities like much more greenery.

means of transport

public space

Kremerstraat, 16th century

Esdoornstraat, 1951

Kremerstraat, 17th/18th century

Proveniersblok, 1973 17

portrait Paper model City as an ecosystem

The portrait refers to the notion of city as an ecosystem consisting of three groups of components: natural, social and built.

The natural components - the elements are hard to harness, strong enough to outlive the other components. I used a hard surface to visualise the characteristics of this part.

The social components - the people are able to adapt to different conditions, therefore can be portrayed with a soft material, flexible and adaptable, that can be easily transformed.

nature 18

People - the soft tissue - can reclaim the land from the water, stretch the density in that area and if necessary loose it/give it back to the water.

The third group - the built environment - is showed as cuts on the social tissue and the natural environment. They symbolize the constant interdependency between people and built environment. Roads and buildings can connect and divide humans. Some of the built elements can also harm the environment.

people

built environment

open city How the accessibility influences openess of the city?

How the openess of the city changes in different areas?

What could be transformed in the city?

Richard Sennett in his essay on the open city defines it as a system with borders/membranes, where people interact with each other. It is a city that can be transformed and the locals have impact on it thanks to bottom-up approach.

The city is open when it provides people with a choice - choice of mean of transport they prefer to use or choice of place where they want to spend their free time.

In this chapter I analyse the influence that proximity and accessibility have on livability of the cities. I refer to Jan Gehl’s theory (1971) about necessary and optional activities. He argues that the necessary activities, such as everyday journeys to school, work or to the shop

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will occur no matter the quality of environment, whereas occurrence of the optional activities depends on how the built environment looks like. Attractiveness of public spaces influences also social activities, people tend to spend more time in the pleasant places and there is a bigger opportunity that they would meet others and interact with them.

Bergen op Zoom is a city that appears to have relatively high quality of life.

Even though some areas are less livable, they have some qualities that the more livable parts lack. As a conclusion of this chapter I present SWOT analysis of Bergen op Zoom including proposal for the future transformation.

Kijk in de Pot and the lakefront - potential transformation area

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necessary activities Where are the places of the necessary activities located in the city?

How well accessible are they?

Bergen op Zoom is a relatively small city with a well-developed infrastructure for bikes, which makes each part of the city easily accessible. In this analysis I focus on the proximity between different areas and the railway station, the workplaces and the schools.

I measure the accessibility by bike (simplifying analysed paths to a straight line) and the proximity of schools by bike and by foot, considering a 5-minute walk distance of 400 m.

Mollerlyceum 22

In contrast to the schools that are evenly distributed throughout the city, one of the biggest employment provider in Bergen op Zoom, industrial area, is located on the city’s outskirts and thus it is not as well accessible as the schools. Since this area does not represent any other function and is located far from the city’s “everyday life” outdoor places, it does not increase the livability of the city. The station on the other hand is located centrally in a close proximity to livable city center.

industrial harbour

railway station

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optional activities Where are the places of the optional activities located in the city?

How well accessible are they?

Jan Gehl (1971) listed couple of activities that by him are optional, such as taking a walk, contemplating the beauty of life, or sitting and sunbathing. Looking at the map of Bergen op Zoom, it is noticeable that the city is surrounded by green area - forests, meadows and marshes - and has several smaller parks in between the settlements. It is also visible that the vast greenery surrounding the city is divided from it by wide infrastructure and connected only by small bridges.

parks 24

Proximity to places of other optional activities like eating out contrasts with the proximity to green areas. The diagram indicates that the city centre is buzzing with public life and that the rest of the areas shows different phenomenon.

The way the space is designed influences the way we perceive it and use it. In Bergen op Zoom the area that if transformed could impact the character of the city is the lakefront together with Kijk in de Pot.

restaurants

forest and meadows

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portrait Complex diagram SWOT analysis

As a third partial portrait we were asked to create a complex diagram. As a summary of my search, not only for the last theme but throughout the whole quarter, I chose to present strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Bergen op Zoom.

Strengths that the city represents are attractive green areas, well-developed infrastructure for bikes and the lively city centre with various services.

Weaknesses that the city should address are

strengths 26

weaknesses

several monofunctional neighbourhoods, infrastructure dividing the city and the nature as well as not well planned area by the lakefront and its poor connection to the city centre. The last mentioned weakness could become an opportunity for the transformation of the existing public space - illustrated in the diagram.

The threats that the city could face are rising sea levels, which perhaps could be solved by widening the dikes, what consequently would lead to further loss of city-water connection.

opportunities

threats

conclusion Reflective essay Final portrait

Bergen op Zoom after these two months is not longer a stranger to me, it is a friend who I wanted to get to know and spent many hours exploring different qualities that it represents and processes that changed it.

It was a fascinating journey, which started with excitement and quickly intersperced with uncertainties and several moments of confusion. It took a while to find a path and become confident in the process. In my quest for truth about the city, I learned a lot about the country I just moved to, about the sources available for urbanists and how to use them.

I found this exploration a proper and fruitful introduction to the urbanism studies. It was challlenging and fun at the same time.

Bergen op Zoom turned out to be a city with an eventful history, a city that never gave up, a city full of pride that finds it hard accepting its vulnerability even at the price of friendships.

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The model displays the current relationship between the city and the water. Water is presented as a powerful element that used to be a threat to the city in the past. Perhaps can become it again if the human race do not change their behaviour and continue to ignore the climate. The city as it was shaped naturally respecting the relationship with water and later after the occurrence of the flood in 1953, feeling vulnerable, became egoistic, built its protection that caused irreversible changes in the natural environment as well as it loosened the city-water relation. After the construction of the dikes and the canal - represented by the gap in between the city and the water - city started reclaiming the land and built in unnatural way ascending the unstable man-made structure. Mirror is a symbol of city’s egoism, its attitude not respecting its former friend - water.

references

theory references:

web references:

de Kraker, A.M.J. (2006). Flood events in southwestern Netherlands and coastal Belgium, 1400–1953. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 51:5, 913-929

https://www.topotijdreis.nl/ https://code.waag.org/buildings/ https://nl.wikipedia.org/ https://www.openstreetmap.org/ https://www.atlasleefomgeving.nl/kaarten https://www.bergenopzoom.nl https://allecijfers.nl/gemeente/bergen-opzoom/ https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/impact-sea-lakes-rivers-peoples-health

Gehl, J. (2011). Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Pickett, S.T. A., Cadenasso, M.L., Childers, D.L., Mcdonnell, M.J., Zhou, W. (2016). Evolution and future of urban ecological science: ecology in, of, and for the city, Ecosystem Health and Sustainability, 2:7 Sennett, R. Open City Tucker, P., Gilliland, J., (2007). The effect of season and weather on physical activity: a systematic review. Public Health, 121, 909922 White, M., Alcock, I., Wheeler, B.W., Depledge, M.H. (2013). Would You Be Happier Living in a Greener Urban Area? A Fixed-Effects Analysis of Panel Data. Psychological Science, 24(6), 920-928

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Many thanks to the always supportive Luisa and to my great group for all your help, especially to Patrick, Anne and Yaqi.

Delft, 29th October 2019