Belgian Coast Park

belgian coast park

Design Explorations 3, International Center of Urbanism, KU Leuven (Belgium)

In any place in the world, the coast is enigmatic... ...The sea’s vastness and its brute forces, the sunny beaches and relaxing visitors. The meaning of the coast is multiple. In Belgium, the coast is just 60km long, or short. It is one of the most densely urbanized coast lines of the world, complementing the equally densely urbanized ScheldtMeuze Delta.

With regards to development, its piecemeal appropriation started from deep inland.

The lowlying deltalandscape only reaches 5m above sea level around Bruges. From there, humankind has encroached on the coast by systematically damming and draining the dynamic

estuarine landscape. The polders are testimonies of a lost estuarine sea-land interplay. The dunes lie scattered and fragmented in the thin interplay that is left between sea and land.

In some places they are still impressive, in others they have been urbanized since their height provides a safe ground for urbanization.

For more than two centuries, the system of interplay between sea and land has been fixed. A safety line has been maintained as a primary objective. Engineered and technical solutions ensure the actual coastal defense: dykes and subsequent dyke

heightening; breakwaters that prevent beach erosion and stimulate sedimentation; tidal locks which organize the interplay between salt (sea) and sweet (inland river) water through draining windows; the artificially drained polders, etc. The solutions not only ensure the current systemic functioning of the landscape, but also the systemic use of the coast and its built infrastructure. The infrastructure of the “royal avenue” with a 2x2-lane road and a 60km fast tram that goes from the outer west (De Panne) to the outer east (Knokke) confirms the linear organization of the sea-land interface along

which urban use has been intensified. A system of sea villages is strung together.

Highly valorized, first line apartment buildings (the so called “Atlantic Wall”) and urban centers are supported by the coastal defense, while large areas of drained polder and fixed dunes are occupied by an urbanization with a wide amplitude of qualities, from very affordable and thus widely inclusive campings, to exclusive mansions. All of these housing typologies have either temporary use (as holiday units) or are permanently inhabited.

MAHS-MAULP Spring 2021 Design Studio 2

CONTEXT & CHALLENGES

Challenges for the coastal region

In the coming years, the Belgian coast will have to face several challenges. Like most littoral areas in the world, the Belgian coast will have to reinvent itself in the coming years. One of the first and most important challenges is the climate changes we will face in the coming years. Sea lever rise (SLR) is estimated between 1 and 3m by the year 2100 and will continue the increase afterwards. The speed of SLR will also increase over time, which is a tendency that has been observed already in the previous century. More than 85% of the Belgian coast is below the 5m line, and therefore potentially flood-prone. (Eu coastal adaptation, unknown). This makes the Belgian coast one of the most vulnerable coastlines. It is difficult to predict the exact extent of sea level rise, but according to a

study conducted by MUMM (Management Unit of the North Sea Mathematical Model, an initiative of the federal government) in the framework of the CLIMAR project, the sea level is expected to rise by 30 cm to 50 cm by 2040 and by 60 cm to 2 m by 2100, depending on the scenario (CLIMAR, 2011). This rise in sea level will render ineffective the protection systems currently in place on the Belgian coast. Theoretically, there can be the enforcement of the technocratic solutions of dykes, artificial draining, sand refilling of eroded beaches, but it is evident that there are not endless resources to actually maintain or even build the necessary infrastructure to do so. So there is a challenge to be taken into account.

How can we rethink our coastal defence in a different way than we have done for the last 100 years?

Zwin +5m TAW

Discharge window

Average height of the sea and the different landscapes

Tidal ridge +4m TAW

Sea level at high tide +4,4m TAW

Dune

Sea level rise and coastal defense

Outlandpolder +2m TAW The water can leave during the period in which the level of the sea is lower than the level of the watercourses

Target level rivers and channels +4m TAW

Sea level at low tide +0,7m TAW Moeren +0,5m TAW

The timeframe to discharge freshwater from the polders into the sea will become even more limited in the future. Adapted from Departement Omgeving, Vlaamse Overheid. 2020. Kust en klimaat: Gids voor een gebiedsgerichte aanpak. Brugge: Die Keure.

A typical dune section. The back dune is the most tolerant for urbanisation. Adapted from McHarg, Ian L. 1969. Design with nature. Garden City, N.Y.: Published for the American Museum of Natural History [by] the Natural History Press

Water Managment in the polder

The rhythms of the coast will change dramatically. The shifts in high and low tide, dry and hot days, heat and water stress, periods of intense rainfal and floodrisks... will have enormous impact. source: De Wolf, Ellen. 2021. Nurturing Nature: addressing climate change on the Belgian polders and coast: unpublished master thesis

The Belgian coast will also be subject to intense rainfall due to climate change.

They are expected to occur more often in winter with an alternation with severe drought in summer. How will the polders evolve under these conditions? Current storm flood predictions by the Environmental Systems Research Institute show that these intense rainfalls will

not be able to be drained properly by the polders.

Furthermore, with rising sea levels, the entire polder system would potentially have to be rethought. The polders work on a system of communicating vessels. The water level of the polders on the coast is constant at around 3m. When the tide is lower than three meters, the fresh water in the polders is discharged into the sea to allow them to re-drain again. At present, our tides

fluctuate between 0 and 5 meters, depending on the seasons and the moon’s cycle. However, according to MUMM predictions, the ‘zero’ sea level could rise to 3m, which would make the tides fluctuate between 3m and 8m making polders below 3m undrainable unless they are pumped out.

These new potential polder conditions are therefore also a challenge to rethink the coast in 2100.

MAHS-MAULP Spring 2021 Design Studio

CONTEXT & CHALLENGES Urbanization and Tourism Another current challenge of the Belgian coast, which is also directly related to costal defence, is the fragmentation of the dune landscape by urbanisation over the years. The Belgian coast is indeed one of the most densely populated in Europe (Vilášek, 2018). Over the years, urbanisation, and more specifically the Atlantic wall, has fragmented the dunescape in order to live as close to the sea as possible. By flattening the dunes, building concrete dikes and imposing apartment buildings, this urbanisation has completely lost its relationship with the landscape. Moreover, the construction of these sea view flats shows the tendency

to take into account only the orientation towards the sea without bearing great interest to the dunes, polders, and the edges between all these landscapes. This shows the mono-interest in the sea front by residents and visitors alike. This dichotomy between the sea front and the other landscapes, as well as the requalification of the built environment by integrating it more with the different landscapes present, are challenges that the Belgian coast must take up in the coming years. The tourism has followed the same pattern, also focusing solely on the sea front. It is the beaches and the dikes that are taken over by the Belgian population when the first ray of sunshine appears.

However, today’s campers

and caravans are very few to stay near the sea. It is rather in fields of caravans or bungalows that the Belgian comes to relax on holiday.

Tourism, the way the coast is occupied seasonally, is therefore also a challenge that can be rethought.

All these challenges require a reconsideration of the 200-year old linear coastal organization. Do we continue to invest in expensive solutions to maintain the (aged) urbanization?

As consequences of climate change and the present urbanization present themselves as challenges, they can also be seen as an opportunity to rethink coastal urbanization to allow a transition towards a

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more resilient urban model. Vilášek, Marek. “Restart for the Coast - A complex Strategy for the The studio seeks to refit Empowerement of the Coastal Territory urbanization so it can be in Belgium across the Scales.” Leuven sustained more naturally : KU Leuven. Faculteit Architectuur, 2018. case “Line Coast” by its insertion into the natural dynamics. Nature- Eu coastal adaptation. “Le changement et la côte belge RW ». based solutions will allow climatique Littoral et changement climatique – fr. for a more resilient future Date Unknown. since they are systemic, CLIMAR project. « evaluation of climate evolutive and “smart”, and if change impacts and adaptation”. SSD – well designed self-adaptive science for sustainable development & to the future impacts of BSI – Belgian science policy. 2011. climate change. Climate A selection of coastal typologies, change then also becomes source: Carlijne Lelièvre the pretext to rethink the way the coast functions in itself: as a coastal economy (e.g. the harbors); as a space of movement, as an ecology, as a place of tourism, etc. The studio therefore will focus both on the redesign of the coastal ecosystem as on the functioning of the urban infrastructure.

The Belgian coast today and tomorrow Dune coast

Line coast

Forest dune coast

Polder coast

Zwin coast

The wide dune system in the west of the coast is impressive. It not only provides a natural coastal defense, but has become an attraction for urbanization. The old town centers are positioned at the edge of polder and dunes, and a new ‘badplaats’ was developed directly at the coast.

The qualities of the in-between dune landscape have resulted in a piecemeal fragmentation of this exceptional environment: an urban mesh has fixed the dunes.

A defragmentation program has been initiated to allow the reconnection of different nature areas. What if we take this defragmentation to its essence! What do we need to realize a coexistence of a dynamic dune landscape with a renewed urban component?

From Wetende to Oostende polder and sea are closest together. The sequence sea – beach – dyke – urbanization – royal avenue – tram – polder is so thin that sometimes just pieces exist. The coast strongly erodes here and the actual height of beach and dyke is quite low. Sea level rise will have a devastating impact on this coast. The systemic connection between polder and sea needs to be rethought together in order to respond to the fragile nature of this piece of the coast.

Today, this fragile nature also gives a specific identity. Is this piece of coast so thin we should break it open? What does the connection between polder and sea mean then?

The piece of coast between Ostend and Wenduine is iconic in itself. The coastal afforestation by Van der Swaelmen in the nineteenth Century has defined its forested dune character. Urbanization and infrastructure lie fluently in this landscape, yet also form disruptions. The 2x2 lane of the royal lane is questioned here: what about a new bike highway and a reduction of the road profile? How can this help the systemic dune formations and what can this transformation mean in the town of De Haan? Climate change and new modes of mobility go hand in hand! mobility go hand in hand!

In this segment the polders are low and close to the coast.

This results in accentuated height transitions between both. Here, the sea port of Bruges pierces the polder inwards, and pierces the sea outwards. It is a system in itself that blends draining canals and hard coastal defense systems and sluices. In the margins pieces of a village and immeasurably rich polder nature can be found.

Can we explore a less space consuming and more spatially divers attitude for the port? How can we use new port infrastrutures as a way to steer towards a polder-sea interface that is inclusive and

The most eastern piece of the Belgian coast is under the influence of the Scheldt mouth and strongly erodes. Every year sand is deposited on the beaches to sustain them over the summer. It’s a quite exclusive piece of the coast with a densely established urban configuration. New investment happen on the coastal front in the form of new towers, and in the back of the polder where a special water landscape is easily created.

Despite attempts of densifications, the main urbanization is still simply expanding into the polders. How can we refit this balance? How can urbanization pressure meet systemic coastal design?

< De Panne

Nieuwpoort >

< Westende

Oostende > < Bredene

Wenduine > <

Zeebrugge > < Heist

Knokke >

MAHS-MAULP Spring 2021 Design Studio 4

PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY

(discontinued) dynamics at the Belgian coast Following the eponymous essay by Philippa Lankers, 2021

an urban mesh

Philippa Lankers

Caroline Thaler

Piecemeal appropriation of land has resulted in an urban mesh which has descended upon the dunes and thus fixed a dynamic landscape.

The coast is enigmatic, the coast is multiple.

The coast is also contradictory.

In the meantime we continue in our linear fashion. Following the layered recipe from beach to ‘atlantic wall’ and dunes to polders. These are the elements that cut the system into fragments.

Joris Moonen

Xenia Stompou

lines drawn in the sand

MAHS-MAULP Spring 2021 Design Studio

PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY

Xenia Stompou

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natural (/) order

Yang Yu

Similarly, the rhythmic dynamics of the tides are choreographed (rather incredibly) to the preferences of human occupation.

The coast wants to be enigmatic.

The coast wants to be multiple.

The coast wants to be marvelously dynamic.

invisible forces: disrupted to disruptor Natural forces will become the disruptor. It is coming.

It is the invisible made shockingly, devastatingly visible.

year 2100 storm level year 2100 high-tide level year 2100 low-tide level

year 2100 storm waves year 2100 high-tide waves current dyke Giulia Devis

year 2100 high-tide level year 2100 low-tide level

Philippa Lankers

current harbour wall

MAHS-MAULP Spring 2021 Design Studio 6

A VISION FOR 2100 Following the eponymous essay by Arthur Stache, 2021

Coastal defence The use of dunes as the main protective element against sea level rise comes from two distinct, yet fundamental observations.

First, the systematic use of hard dikes on a global scale seems neither able to produce a qualitative response to the challenge in regards to public space nor in light of the coastal ecosystems at stake. Second, the existing dune landscape is often interrupted and inactivated either by urbanisation

or excessive artificial vegetation. Finally, offshore islands emerge wherever bathymetry allows to create a first defence system as the damping of wave energy reduces the need for protective interventions on the coast. The 2100 vision seeks to reinstate a dynamic dune ecology and employ both rewilding and the reemergence of a common cultural meaning and identity to the coast.

Water figures The land laying behind the dunes has been reclaimed from the sea over centuries and is consequently now characterised by an elevation that does not exceed 5 metres above the current sea level. The topographical analysis of the 3 metres level reveals the hidden structures of the territory. It is proposed to use these strategic topographical figures to deal with the question of fresh water management, a crucial challenge for a

polder landscape. The bold renaturalisation of once existent water streams allows for fresh water storage and the hierarchisation of water flows (collection, distribution and evacuation). Some specific and safe locations along the coastline make place for seawater inlets. They in turn create tidal landscapes that enter in close relationship to freshwater ecosystems. This interface becomes an ecologically rich ecotone like the Zwin.

Polder character The model of the polder as an artificial and superimposed landscape needs to be reformulated. More and more this productive landscape will have to diversify in order to be able to cope with the changes ahead. The vision proposes to locally de-polderise in favour of the creation of freshwater ponds and marshlands. The integration of a wider range of types of agriculture could then go hand-in-hand with the reappearance of a

more varied fauna and flora. Community involvement could not only generate awareness and education, but could also become a playground to try new types of cultivation systems such as aquaculture at a bigger scale. The polder as an intensive and mono-cultural productive landscape must come to an end. The water becomes the trigger to move towards a more diverse environment, both in terms of uses and types.

Urban infrastructures The coast is developed around infrastructures.

Whether they are tramlines, national roads, or dikes, present infrastructures are superimposed on the territory and monofunctional. In their current state, they often act as barriers rather than linking structures.

As sea-level rise challenges the status of infrastructures, there is an opportunity to radically reconsider their purpose, meaning, relation to public space and organizational

power. Infrastructures must gain a dimension where they not only provide services. They are only worth being carried out if they act as a non-redundant enablers to multiple events of actions. Infrastructures lose their nature of objects to endorse the status of performing vectors. This newly acquired multiplicity is the response to the lack of engagement of infrastructures as collectives spaces, they become significant as civic figures.

Multilayered vision The vision instigates the landscapes and their qualities as the underlying structures both bringing cultural meaning to the coastal territory and carrying rational systemic functioning. The natural systems work as much as ecosystem machines as cultural entities. A greater resilience and adaptability to future change is aimed as well as an increase of quality in the way in which human activities nest within their environment. A

sense of layered coherence over the entirety of the Belgian coast, that is what a systemic way of thinking and designing offers in the frame of an inhabited park. Finally, the vision sees coastal urbanism systems to be embedded back and reshaped within natural systems.

Living in the dunes, with the sea, with tidal landscapes, along fresh water figures and with new agriculture types; those are the new coastal urban models to work with.

MAHS-MAULP Spring 2021 Design Studio

A VISION FOR 2100 Climate change is taken as the very serious pretext to reconsider how to envision the Belgian Coast for the next century. In the frame of this exercise, the projected sealevel rise is proposed to be considered at the height of three meters. In addition, sea level rise translate to a threat coming from the sea itself but also embodies as well a struggle

to maintain the polder landscape as the operational timeframe available to drainage becomes increasingly smaller. Climate change also means a less even distribution of precipitation and consequently an increase of the length and severeness of dry and heat episodes during summer as well as risk of floods during intense rain events. Moreover,

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the Belgian Coast has known and continues to endure a strong pressure caused by urbanisation and a capital-driven housing market. These very reasons are the starting point towards a new way to think the Belgian coast as a whole, a new inhabited park, characterised by the particular interaction between inhabited polder and sea landscapes.

MAHS-MAULP Spring 2021 Design Studio 8

A VISION FOR 2100

Dune coast

Gemma Annear Pebri Astuti Philippa Lankers Yifan Hu Dune forest

Redynamized dunes

Imagine a coastline that is redynamized and the ecology strengthened for a new conception of inhabitation in the dunes.

The current dune system already protects much of the existing urbanisation from flooding but the ecosystem value is hampered because of fragmentation by urbanisation and infrastructures. The main ambition here lies to find a sensible relation between a reconfigured urbanisation and a renaturalised dune system system, where the wind and sand accumulation canagain can play it’s role.

The slope of the beach between De Panne and Nieuwpoort is very gentle

Sand motor

so this makes shoreline solutions for coastal defense a viable option. To give the sand system a boost, an extended lagoon area off Koksijde is modelled on the idea of a sand motor. The premise is that it uses natural currents and wind flows to deposit the sand landward.

New oyster reefs and living breakwaters are also brought to the shore for productive and recreational landscapes that work as breakwaters and new habitats to encourage biodiversity. The polders, specifically along the Langgeleed and the Yzer valley will be flooded with risen water tables to transform into a freshwater aquaculture environment.

Oyster reefs

Breakwaters

Aquaculture

MAHS-MAULP Spring 2021 Design Studio

A VISION FOR 2100

Line coast

Laetitia Nour Hanna Arthur Stache Xenia Stompou Yang Yu Protective offshore islands

Freshwater storage of the creek

Coastal typologies

Systemic urban reshaping

By reading the topography along with flood predictions, the figure of the historic meandering tidal creek is being reintroduced together with the strategic breaking of dikes for the activation of the dune ecosystem.

The island originally spanning from Oostende to Westende is reiterated, this time mediating fresh and salty water. The proposal envisions this new landscape entity as a means to address coastal defence needs in light of climate change adaptation, the reshaping of urbanisation, whether temporal or permanent, through the creation of multiplicity while also safeguarding the productivity Strategic breaking of the dike and dune enhancement

of the polders. Yet the creek is not a mere figure, but it introduces a systemic vision regarding the storage and drainage of fresh water on the polders together with a system of adjacent ponds.

Along it, several activities get reorganised: variations of camping facilities with different temporalities.

Finally, coastal protection is addressed through the systemic enhancement of the dune ecosystem along with strategic interventions on the dikes and the rethinking of coastline urban typologies.

The creation of islands and sandbanks enhances the sedimentation process and activate the dunes, creating a nuanced coastal landscape.

Redevelopment of tissue through landscape

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MAHS-MAULP Spring 2021 Design Studio 10

A VISION FOR 2100

Dune Forest coast

Du Bing Giulia Devis Valerian A. Portokalis Tidal landscape

Recovered dune landscape

The forested landscape has fixed the dunes into compact islands of topography in order to allow the creation of continuous lines of infrastructure. These lines, the coastal tramline, the Koninglijke Baan, and the ‘Dune Road’ have thus formed and been formed by the landscape. However, the current condition of the forested dune is far from the one initially projected.

The infrastructure lines, by fracturing the topography, have generated small different areas. This project proposes to pass from this fixed to a dynamic topography by rethinking the infrastructure lines that shaped them.

This would allow the dune Flooded polders

‘Valley’ uses as water storage

forest to recover a more unified ecology, composed by a patchwork of forested dunes and dynamic dunes.

This ambition finds itself completed by more specific interventions. In Bredene, a critical location for coastal defence, a tidal landscape inland is projected. Besides retaining sea water, this new landscape will offer residents and visitors a new way of experiencing the Belgian coast. The town of De Haan repositions itself again within these landscape, the ‘concessie’ as part of the dune landscape, it’s more recent extension it the polder finds a new relation with a sequence of freshwaterponds that defines it’s edge.

Forested dune

Agricultural landscape

Polder coast

Leander Baeke Ying Li Donglin Liu Caroline Thaler

This part of the coast, from Wenduine to Zeebrugge, is defined by three completely different waterscapes. In this proposal the identity of these systems is strengthened, and their role in the watersystem is redefined. The first water system, the Uitkerkse Polders, today retain much of their picturesque character and ecological value. No major interventions are proposed here: a new balance of wet and dry will be found.

Along the creek in the central part of the polder, a network of soft mobility will structure new practices of tourism: the farms will be connected, of which some are expended with new social infrastructures such as

Flooded landscape of the Uitkerkse Polder

Polder water system infiltrates urban tissue

MAHS-MAULP Spring 2021 Design Studio

A VISION FOR 2100

elderly care and/ or camping sites. A new forest structure enriches the landscape and complements the now rather monotonous land-use.

In the third waterscape man had the biggest influence: canals and docks organise the land-intensive harbour.

This machine has been taking over the polder landscape seemingly without taking notice of its surroundings.

By strategically softening this mass and adding sand to the machine (metaphorically speaking), we allow communities and ecosystems to grow and relate to the water landscape once again.

New soft mobility network & forest patches

Zwin coast

Ariane Cantillana Percy Juarez Carlijne Lelièvre

New developments to the machine

In this part of the coast, closest to the Dutch border and strongly under the influence of the Scheldt river, the landscapes that compose it each stand on their own, as separate entities. The Zwin coastal landscape from the harbour to the Zwin park is separated. With a loss of connection between landscape and urban tissue.

The main goal is to enhance each of the singular landscapes that make out this piece of the coast, and strengthen their relations: polder, dunes and the fantastic tidal landscape of the Zwin. Most of the dune system here is heavily urbanised, only small pockets remain. In this proposal Expanded dunes on the beach

the dunes are extended and connected again by a continuous line of dunes in front of the current dyke.

The polder itself will be able to accumulate substantially more water by means of a series of ponds along the major canal. Finally, an significant enlargement of the Zwin tidal landscape is envisioned. Where these landscapes meet, new interfaces arise with lots of potential for specific urban interventions: a new relation with the polder for Knokke along the train line, and an extended tramline in Zoute on the new Zwin dyke, encircling a renaturalised golf course.

Tramline extension

Reconversion of the golf course into dune landscape

Freshwater ponds sequence

Zwin extension

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MAHS-MAULP Spring 2021 Design Studio 12

STRATEGIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECTS

Inhabiting the backdune Is there any way urbanization can inhabit a landscape of dunes, without jeopardizing it’s dynamic nature? Actually a dune system consists of different segments, from sea to polder: beach -primary dunes -trough -secondary dune -back dunes -bay shore (transition zone between dune and polder) -bay (polder area). Each segment holds a different level of tolerance for human occupation. The back dune is the most suitable space for human inhabitation. At the same time this backdune is best sheltered from the elements, far enough from the beach not to be exposed to salt spray and winter storms. It’s distance from the shore ensures protection from flooding, it’s heightened topography

protects from floods in the polders. It is a stabilized, forested dune, protected from the glaring sun, with abundant availability of freshwater. Nevertheless the development needs to be carefully thought.

In this casestudy on Oostduinkerke, some parts in more sensible dune zones are de-urbanized to allow sand and wind to move, while the backdunes are densified. The Avenue Leopold II, typically connecting the old town with its offspring at the coastline, is radically rethought. Car mobility is limited to the polder town, and once in the dunes, movement patterns changed into soft mobility; bikes, cargo bike, and pedestrianized routes.

The urban pattern in the backdune reintegrates existing structures with precise additions under a thick canopy of trees.

Embedding the slope

Meadowing the roof

The town of Oostduinkerke is reimagined in relation to the dune landscape. Urbanistaion is concentrated in the less sensible back dunes. All images on this page: dune coast group

Living in the trees

Embedding the slope

MAHS-MAULP Spring 2021 Design Studio

STRATEGIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECTS

Reshaping urban figures along the creek While the dune system is protecting us from the force of the sea, a new relation with the polder system will be necessary. To continue to regulate fresh water storage and it’s discharge in the sea without elaborate pumping systems, the existing water systems of canals, creeks, and ponds, will have to be expanded considerably. As a starting point, the historical water structures and depressions in the polder landscape can play this role.

Obviously, the urban system should then be able to adapt and transform to this new polder condition.

In Middelkerke, The old creek that runs from Westende all the way to Middelkerke, is barely noticeable. However, due to it’s position right in the middle of the creek, the town center of Middelkerke has the potential to become

the regulator of the water system. It’s public spaces and urban pattern can be rethought in relation to this new found landscape, as a new water front.

On the edge of Oostende, a rather banal national road crosses this same polder landscape, but the boxes of retail that align it, neglect this specific landscape condition and turn their back to the open polder fields. At the same time, it’s position in between two distinct polder landscapes, the ‘Middenkust’polder and the more recent polders of Ostend, can be expressed more strongly.

This project proposes a gradual transformation of this monofunctional car-based enclave into a lively urban quarter, in close relation to the water system of the polder.

The gradual transformation of the town of Middelkerke in relation to the creek. (2) Left image Farmsteads and new productive landscapes in relation to the creek. (1) Bottom image The creek links Westende and Oostende once again and steers 3 ways of expanding and compressing urbanity along it.

The gradual transformation of a linear retail cluster into a new urban quarter in dialogue with the creek landscape. (3) All images on this page: line coast group

Westende Variations on Temporality

Strategic Projects

(1)

(2)

(3)

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MAHS-MAULP Spring 2021 Design Studio 14

STRATEGIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECTS

Shifting sea - land relations We could imagine a coastline where the sealand relation is intensified.

Coastline protection is most optimally addressed through the systemic enhancement of the dune ecosystem, but in some places a more drastic intervention seems appropriate. Where current coastal protection is weak, the sea might get the freedom to invade the polder once again. This is exactly what is proposed in Bredene: the dune front is breached and an inland sea is formed in a low-lying polder area. On the interface between salt and fresh water systems new harbor infrastructure and urban tissue coexist.

A similar intervention is proposed at the Zwin. Its current size is the result of a compromise between nature and agriculture, but would benefit from a more substantial expansion to increase its resilience against the silting up of the inlet.

In some places the interface between sea and land is only a thin line. The typical coastal development of apartment blocks facing the see might turn out to be more resistant then expected.

In Middelkerke for instance, this ‘atlantic wall’ functions as retaining wall for the protective dune belt in front of it.

W

The atlantic wall of Middelkerke acts as a retaining wall for the dune belt. Source: line coast group

The Zwin salt marshes are substantially expanded.

Source: zwin coast group

An inland sea next to Bredene transforms the urban system and complements the patchwork of dune ecologies that reemerges when the bundle of linear infrastructures of road and tram is retought.

Source: dune forest coast group

MAHS-MAULP Spring 2021 Design Studio

STRATEGIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECTS

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Urban infrastructures as civic figures The rethinking and adaptation of the 20th century infrastructures will be one of the main challenges of the 21th century, especially at the coast. In three case studies, this topic was elaborated for Bruges sea port, Ostend airport and the bundle of linear infrastructures between Bredene and Wenduine.

The Bruges sea port is a massive infrastructural machine has been gradually eating the polder landscape and extending itself seawards.

Most of the surface however consists parking space for import and export of cars.

More than 200.000 parking spaces make it the largest transshipment car port in the world. The old town of Zeebrugge, with its workingclass neighborhoods, is

somewhat hindering the perfect functioning of the well-oiled harbor machine, as if it was sand in the engine. The Bruges sea port projects shows how the Town of Zeebrugge can benefit from it’s position. By reclaiming and integrating abandoned infrastructures and leftover spaces it’s connections and public space quality is drastically

improved. By strategically decommissioning and desealing dock edges Zeebrugge finally reclaims its coastline and the natural value of the port is rebalanced. By reorganizing this massive machine and wide waterways, multiple functions would grow in the surroundings and take over the water lines for more efficient space use.

Similarly, at the regional Oostende airport the tarmac is desealed and the airport domain is opened up and transformed into a strong landscape figure, negotiating between the urban and the productive landscape of the polders.

Middelkerke Water Interfaces

Bottom image The airfield of Oostende as mediator between urban and creek Source: line coast group

Top image Reclaiming infrastructures and leftover spaces to reconnect Zeebrugge to it’s surrounding landscapes Source: polder coast group

MAHS-MAULP Spring 2021 Design Studio 16

A National Coast Park

an inhabited landscape

Our future is very much dependent on the resilience and sustainability of our coasts. The 66 kilometer long coastline of Belgium demands a coherent answer on the challenges of the 21st century. To deal with the current condition of fragmentation and urbanization the answer will have to be embedded in the landscape. The idea of a national metropolitan coastal park aims at creating one coastal system that contains multiple ecosystems, from the various watersystems of the polders to the shifting sandscapes of the dunes. At this moment, these ecosystems already exist within the coastal environment, the challenge however is to strengthen them and re-establishments their mutual relationships. The need for this coherent vision is urgent for these ecosystems to regain resilience against sea level rise, droughts and salinization of the polders. This coastal park is not only an innovative way to deal with these coastal challenges, but also an opportunity to redefine the park landscape of the 21st century. The inhabited park creates an interdisciplinary reality of the different ecosystems, while simultaneously leaving room for development and change. The creation of a coastal park also calls for the rethinking of our relation with this landscape. “Living in the dunes, living with the sea, living with tidal landscapes, living along fresh water figures and living with new agriculture types; those are the new coastal urban models to work with” (Stache, 2021, p. 18). However, we have to come to an understanding that we are no longer creating parks solely for human pleasure and purpose, but ultimately the coastal park gives space to nature and its forces, while co-existing with human needs.

Gemma Annear, Pebri Astuti, Leander Baeke, Ariane Cantillana, Giulia Devis, Bing Du, Laetitia Nour Hanna, Yifan Hu, Percy Juarez, Philippa Lankers, Carlijne Lelièvre, Ying Li, Donglin Liu, Valerian A. Portokalis, Arthur Stache, Xenia Stompou, Caroline Thaler, Yang Yu

Baeke, L. (2021). National / Metropolitan Parks: A Vision for the Brabantse Woud, Ghent and the Belgian Coast. Catholic University of Leuven.

Cantillana, A. (2021). Coastal Park: An opportunity to create new ecologies. Catholic University of Leuven.

Stache, A. (2021). Belgian Coast 2100 vision: Research by Design. Catholic University of Leuven.

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE FACULTY OF ENGINEERING SCIENCES

MASTER OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS MASTER OF URBANISM, LANDSCAPE AND PLANNING

Tutored by Joris Moonen and Wim Wambecq with Bruno De Meulder and Kelly Shannon Thank you Stijn Vanderheiden and Bert Van Severen (T.OP Kust - departement Omgeving) and external jury members Hendrik Bloem (ORG) and Stefanie Dens