Studio Framework

Studio Framework 3

Infrastructural Footprints 6

Infrastructural Systems 12

Studio Projects 20

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.

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.