Spring 2015. Campine Region, Belgium. Waste(d). Connecting cycles, rethinking infrastructures.

WASTE(D).

Connecting cycles, rethinking infrastructures.

K.U.Leuven, Master of Human Settlements, Master of Urbanism and Strategic Planning

Landscape Urbanism Studio (spring 2015), Campine Region, Belgium

LANDSCAPE URBANISM STUDIO STUDIO TEAM

PARTICIPANTS STUDIO

Bruno De Meulder

Irina Constantinescu (Romania)

Julie Marin

Wenyi Fan (China)

Matteo Motti

Israel Ketema (Ethiopia) Trang Khong Minh (Vietnam)

MORE INFO ?

Sven Mertens (Belgium)

MaHS / MaUSP / EMU Master Programs

Ye Ren (China)

Department ASRO, K.U.Leuven Kasteelpark

Glenn Somers (Belgium)

Arenberg 1, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium

Marina Fochi (Italy)

Tel: + 32(0)16 321 391

Piedad Hoyos Garcia (Colombia)

Email: paulien.martens@kuleuven.be

Fitri Maharani Indra (Indonesia) Caterina Rosso (Italy)

ISBN 978-94-6018-976-0

Carmen Van Maercke (Belgium)

Wettelijk depot D/2015/7515/32

Yufei Zhang (China)

© Copyright by K.U.Leuven

GUEST CRITICS

Without written permission of the promotors and the authors it is forbidden to reproduce or adapt in any form or by any means any part of this publication.

Requests for obtaining the right to reproduce or utilize parts of this publication should be addressed to K.U.Leuven, Faculty of Engineering – Kasteelpark Arenberg 1, B-3001 Heverlee (België). Telefoon +32-16-32 13 50 & Fax. +32-16-32 19 88.

Bieke Cattoor (KUL)

A written permission of the promotor is also required to use the methods, products, schematics and programs described in this work for industrial or commercial use, and for submitting this publication in scientific contests.

All images in this booklet are, unless credits are given, made or drawn by the authors (Landscape Urbanism Studio Campine, 2015).

Veronique Claessens (Stad Genk) Christine Daniels (Ruimte Vlaanderen) David De Kool (KUL) Stephanie Dens (KUL / WIT-Architecten) Eric Frijters (.Fabric NL) Cecilia Furlan (KUL-IUAV) Yuri Gerrits (KUL / WIT-Architecten) Michele Girelli (NP-Bridgin) Laila Landtmeters (Stad Antwerpen) Jan Leyssens (Plan-C) Seda Malef (Stad Antwerpen) Laura Nagels (Maat-ontwerpers) Nicolo Privileggio (Studio Secchi-Privileggio) Paul Robbrecht (POM) Marialessandra Secchi (DASTU / Studio Secchi-Privileggio) Kelly Shannon (USC) Tahnee Van Steenbrugge (Provincie Antwerpen) Ward Verbakel (KUL/Plus Office) Edith Wouters (Ar-tur) Guido Geenen (KUL / WIT-Architecten) Maarten Van Acker (UA) Liesl Van Autgaerden (Ruimte Vlaanderen) Peter Van den Abeele (Maat-ontwerpers)

RESEARCH FRAMEWORK

“Moving beyond carbon dependence, we can begin to see buildings becoming batteries, highways as rolling warehouses, landfills as goldmines, suburbs as storm water sponges, forests as carbon sinks.” (Bélanger, 2013)

“The city can be fundamentally transformed in experience and ecological function with strategic modifications to infrastructure” (Drake, 2011).

INFRASTRUCTURE CRISIS IN THE HORIZONTAL METROPOLIS

This studio focuses on the mismatch between diffused urbanization patterns and the mainly centralized infrastructural systems which support their daily operations. Illustrated by the case of the Campine Region, the Horizontal Metropolis appears to be the first battlefield of a latent infrastructure crisis. Emblematic for this economic and ecological crisis, are government cut backs on maintenance of infrastructures, public services and distribution of resources in the most remote areas of Flanders1. What if we start to look at the Campine Region as a city-territory where 1.600.000 inhabitants live, work and play?

FROM LINEAR TO CYCLIC MODES OF OPERATION The following studio investigations consider the Horizontal metropolis as a resource. How can we evolve from urbanization in which we consume land and resources - in a linear way - towards a cyclic interaction between human occupation and the environment in which we create infrastructural synergies and connect wasted resources? How can we upgrade the city-territory of the Campine by envisioning new connections between infrastructural assets and available resources? Three design proposals and four theses under development respond to the emergent transitions in resource use: energy, mobility, resources and materials, … through the concept of connecting cycles and rethinking infrastructures. In the post car(bon) era people and goods will move differently through the territory, waste will increasingly be valued as a resource, energy will more and more be produced from renewable and local sources.

Inevitably these transitions will have an impact on their spatial environments. This research by design aims to envision the potential of transitioning geographies of waste and resources on the landscape and on urban space: towards scenarios where recycling of the existing and the envisioning of new lifecycles is mandatory. New dependencies between urbanization and resources can become drivers for development of a resilient and exciting Horizontal Metropolis.

TOWARDS SMART DIFFUSION? In order to make the Horizontal Metropolis’ diffused urbanization more resilient and to reach a ‘smart diffusion’ this design studio proposes a radical shift in the way we deal with infrastructures and resources. Each of the projects identifies strategic sites and stakeholders for tackling resource scarcity and for re-establishing resource efficient dependencies between infrastructures and urbanization patterns.

1 For example Flanders’ winter 2014 energy outage plan.

Antwerpen

Lier

Mechelen

TABLE OF CONTENTS Research Framework

3

Studio Framework

5

Studio Site Introduction

6

Studio Projects

20

Geel

STUDIO FRAMEWORK

WHERE?

The Landscape Urbanism studio’s site of investigation is the Campine Region in Flanders, covering the outskirts of Antwerpen and the Central part of the province of Limburg until Liege and the Meuse river. Successive waves of urbanization took place with the colonization of the Campine through major infrastructural works. For example the Campine Canals which were constructed to irrigate the land, but in the end served as transportation routes. Other major transportation infrastructures crossing this territory are the Albert Canal, the E313 highway and the iron Rhine.

Genk

WHY? The transition towards sustainable use of natural resources and existing infrastructures urges us to rethink the way our Horizontal Metropolis performs.

Hasselt

WHAT?

Liege

Within the Campine region, we zoom in on strategic sites for connecting cycles and rethinking infrastructures. CentralLimburg is a testing site for connecting waste cycles as an economic revival strategy. Several sites under transformation in Central-Limburg will be the area of investigation: a former landfill which is being re-mined (waste as resource), a business area which wants to rethink its basic infrastructures by connecting waste flows between businesses, and the area of the automobile factory of Ford Genk, which closed end 2014 and caused the loss of 10 000 jobs. On the other end of the Albert Canal, the city of Antwerp is starting a reconversio suburbis of its 20th century belt, after decades of renovating the inner city. At the same time citizen movements are initiating big infrastructural transformations such as the covering of the ringroad.

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INFRASTRUCTURAL FOOTPRINTS Natural landscape

1840-1900 Campine Canals & Industry

In the 19th century the Campine was a desolate region. The poor sandy soil was not suitable for agriculture.

The main elements of the landscape were heathlands and afforested areas along rivers. Population density was low and people lived rather scattered.

The first railways were built around 1830, the period of the Industrial revolution. Railways connected Antwerp with Brussels and Liège, but the Campine area was left aside.

It was only around 1840 that the Campine’s potential was addressed in order to transform the arid, sandy, heath plains surrounding the Nethe basin into fertile prairies, an extensive canal network was installed in the Campine. Although the initial project, which was essentially agricultural, was not very successful, the consecutive waves of industrialization clustered around this vast canal network. The entanglement of the local railway with the Campine Canal network triggered a new type of urbanization within the region that did not fit the classic model of radial orientation and organization.

Heathland landscape by Jean Massart

Campine Canal

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Campine in 18th century

Agricultural landscape

SOURCES images (from left to right): http://www.kunstinlimburg.be/sites/default/files/content_images/PBKL/MijnBeeld-JeanMassart%E2%80%93HeideenStiemerbeekvallei Genk.jpg, Friex map 1750, www.delcampe.be, Institut Cartographic Militaire ICM, Deel Moll XVII 2, 1896

STUDIO SITE INTRODUCTION

1901-1939 Coal Mining infrastructure

1952-1965 Highways & Industry

In 1901, coal was discovered in Limburg, in the area of Genk. The transportation network was extended with the Coal Track Railway and the Albert Canal in order for the coal to be transported efficiently to Antwerp and Liège. The Coal Track connected the seven mining sites with the coal harbor of Genk, which in turn got connected with the harbor of Antwerp through the Albert Canal.

The superposition and simultaneous development of Albert Canal and rail network led to an organized diffuseness and resulted in an un-bundled territorial claim, with a clear coherent infrastructural frame.

During the fifties and sixties, when the automobile industry was booming, the highway system was realized. It was also during this period that Ford opened an Assembly factory in Genk South.

The splinting of the Albert Canal with the KB-highway from Antwerp to Liège was part of a national plan to stimulate the industrialization along the canal banks.

During the eighties and nineties the coalmines closed one by one because the import of coal was cheaper than extracting coal in Limburg. At the same time Ford Genk was booming and became the most important economic hub of Limburg.

H

Source: From flux to Frame (Van Acker, 2014)

Borinage mine

Station in Herentals

Highway

Coal Harbor Genk (Gust Deroef)

SOURCES images (from left to right): http://commons.wikimedia.org, http://www.herentals.be/sites/default/files/files/images/geschiedenis/spoorwegen1.jpg, http://www. duwobo.be/blog/, http://www.kustvaartforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=153&start=1020

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INFRASTRUCTURAL SYSTEMS Mobility (E-W) vs Water (N-S)

East-West Oriented Infrastructural Logics

In the Campine we face man made infrastructural bodies in opposition to natural water logics.

The industrial revolution triggered the development of rail, road and canal networks in the Campine Region. These linear infrastructures cross the territory from East to West. Flows of people, goods and materials are directed along several highways and canals. These impressive infrastructures dominate the Campine territory and cut through the more north-south oriented natural systems like forests, agricultural lands and rivers. In Merksem for example, the Albert Canal cuts the River Schijn in two, disrupting part of the region’s hydrological structure.

The natural water structure reveals a historical organisational system in the Campine city-territory, hidden but extremely present. Water bodies run form the Campine plateau towards the Demer river. The Campine Plateau (in red) and the river valleys represent two different ecologies or geological conditions: sand and clay.

North-South Oriented Natural Logics 8

(RIGHT PAGE) Contemporary urban patterns in the Campine belong both to the natural systems (North-South) as to the infrastructural systems (East-West). The first settlements find their origin on the hills between the different river valleys. 19th century urbanization belongs to the implementation of railways and national roads. 20th century industrialisation grew between mayor east-west infrastructures such as the E313 highway and the Albert Canal.

An amplified contrast between natural and artificial rationalities in Limburg 9

INFRASTRUCTURAL SYSTEMS Energy

Existing and Potential energy production modes in Flanders

The Flemish energy landscape is in transition.

On one hand there is a shift to ‘cleaner’ and ‘greener’ energy production modes, using renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy.

At the same time these ‘newer’ energy production modes create a more decentralized energy landscape. For example, solar panels provide energy at the scale of the business park or a geothermal energy plant can provide heat at at the neighborhood scale.

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Along the Albert Canal, a concentration of both ‘old’ and ‘new’ modes of energy production can be found. High tension lines, windmills, and power plants are bundled along the Canal.

The Coal power plant of Langerlo, which used to be fueled with local coal from Limburg, is now receiving imported coal from China.

There are plans to convert this energy production plant into a biomass power plant and to use ‘sustainably produced’ biomass from Canada. At the same time Limburg houses a huge biomass potential.

Energy system in the Campine Region 11

INFRASTRUCTURAL SYSTEMS (Potable) water

0

10

20

30

40 km

The water system of the Albert Canal

Throughout time, the natural flow of water through the Campine has been highly manipulated.

Starting with the construction of the Campine Canals in order to make the dry soil more fertile, water usage in the Campine has always highly depended on the Meuse river. The Meuse originates in France and forms the border between Belgium and the Netherlands at Limburg’s eastern edge. Several Canals, such as the Albert Canal and the Zuidwillemsvaart, extract their water from the Meuse.

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The water from the Albert Canal is used for drinking water production, industry, agriculture and energy production,...

In order to keep water volumes under control, international agreements regulate tapping water from the Meuse: the Maasafvoerverdrag.

Water flows in the Campine Region.

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INFRASTRUCTURAL SYSTEMS Waste WHAT IS THE CURRENT STATE OF YOUR SYSTEM?

466000 ton/year 383000 ton/year

73000 ton/year

149000 ton/year

15000 cars/year 260000 ton/year 10000 ton/year

78000 ton/year

40000 ton/year

Legend Green waste

4000 kT 1000 kT PROVINCE of ANTWERP Municipal waste Burnt or dumped Valorized

Prevention

Household waste PROVINCE of LIMBURG Industrial waste Not-hazardous Hazardous

PmdPaper waste

“zero waste” shop

Reuse

Repair cafè

Energy production

Compostering

REMO site

Collection specific material _household and industrial waste

Recycle point

Collection barges’ waste

Recycle point of hazardous waste

Second hand shop

Bulky waste Ground waste Industrial not hazardous waste

Transformation/ recycle

Collection household waste

Collection and sorting

Exchange point

Industrial hazardous waste

Incinerator of householde waste Incinerator of mixed not hazardous waste

Dumping

Landfill of industrial not hazardous waste Landfill of industrial hazardous waste

Incinerator industrial not hazardous waste Incinerator hazardous waste

10

km

Campine Region Geography of Waste

In the context of natural resource scarcity, Flanders is on the forefront of the transition towards ‘waste as a resource’. Initiatives such as re-mining former landfills, have important spatial footprints, which potentially make them strategic sites to tackle larger issues of infrastructure and urbanization in an integrated approach.

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In the Campine we see shifting waste practices at multiple scales and involving multiple stakeholders. From zero-packaging shops, over Green Schools, popular Flea Markets, to industrial waste to energy investments in the Antwerp Harbor.

Scales and flows of waste in the Campine Region 15

SITE VISITS AND STAKEHOLDERS Antwerp and Campine

Energy generation at Albert Canal Lock in Ham

Municipal Recycling park Deurne

Ford Genk visit with City of Ghenk and Flemish Government

Remo Landfill in Houthalen: pilot site Enhanced Landfill Mining

Central-Limburg

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Antwerp and Campine

Central-Limburg

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INTERPRETATIONS Reading the territory

How to deal with the variety of infrastructural traces present in the Campine territory?

How to reactivate vacant lands in the Campine City-Territory?

How to upgrade existing infrastructures to resilient backbones for the post car(bon) era?

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What’s the potential of transitioning geographies of waste to (re) structure the Horizontal Metropolis?

Which infrastructural synergies can lead to more resource efficient water and energy cycles in the Campine region?

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3 1

2

Situating the design proposals

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Exploring North-South logics for the metamorphosis of the Campine territory

The design exercises were at the same time an exploration on which design tools are useful within the concept of ‘Connecting cycles and rethinking infrastructures’.

Each project is the result of continuously crossing scales in order to understand and to envision the metamorphosis of the territory towards a more sustainable future. The schematic section has been explored as a tool in order to incorporate the aspects of time and process when envisioning new cycles of mobility, energy, water, … as a way to discard the mono functional and segregating nature of contemporary infrastructures. Besides revealing before and after conditions, these sections show the intermediate scale of new transversal relationships between different environments.

The studio explorations landed in three concrete sites, two in Limburg and one in Antwerp. The following part shows design scenarios which envision the metamorphosis of the Campine territory towards a more sustainable future. Three specific contexts have been transformed within the shared theoretical and conceptual framework of ‘Waste(d). Connecting cycles, rethinking infrastructures’.

In a first phase, the Campine Region was mapped through a reading of ‘wasted opportunities’. These mappings revealed vacant spaces, wasteful infrastructures and unlocked potential resources.

Infrastructural footprints of mobility, energy and water have been considered as available spaces to be rethought in terms of possible metamorphosis towards a different territorial footprint.

Each project shifts the attention towards north south logics in opposition to the dominating east west flows related to the highway and canal network. New synergies have been designed through all the available materials presented in the contexts: natural and artificial rationalities start to share common strategies within a landscape urbanism approach.

STUDIO PROJECTS

Envisioning Transition I

Finally, specific sites have been chosen in order to show the consequences of the systemic design approach. According to this approach, each project envisions different aspects for the future image of the Campine city-territory.

Two projects in Limburg develop visions and strategies for Limburg’s next economy. They envision a cyclic strategy which goes far beyond recycling waste. Instead, these projects offer enriched interpretations of what a circular economy could mean from an urban and infrastructural perspective: by connecting waste(d) resources with infrastructures.

Antwerp, on the other end of the Albert Canal, is rethinking its twentieth century belt. A reconversio suburbis after decades of renovatio urbis of the inner ring City. The third design exploration takes the projected transformation of this area as an occasion to rethink the dependency between urbanization and resources. They speculate on transitions in mobility and lifestyles by envisioning a radical transformation of three radial infrastructures: from uni directional ruptures to connective and adaptive structures which reinforce local logics, respond to their local contexts and grow in a rhizomatic way.

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RE-CYCLING LIMBURG Cut, Connect, Redirect Irina Constantinescu, Sven Mertens

‘Re-cycling Limburg’ grasps the transition initiatives in HouthalenHelchteren as a catalyst to develop Limburg into a self-sufficient region. By introducing new infrastructural backbones for spatial development, this project speculates on how this transition can generate more spatial quality and create coherence in this dispersed urbanization. A circular energy economy for Limburg, by reusing infrastructures and re-cycling materials.

Historically, Houthalen-Helchteren houses multiple waste based economies which serve a large region. With the transition from waste management to sustainable materials managment, this municipality has the opportunity to completely reinvent itself. For example, the enormous Remo landfill, has launched technological advanced processes to reclaim waste as a resource, turning waste into materials and energy.

The coal track, a partially disused infrastructure from the mining era which connects the former (dispersed) mining villages, can take up a new role as the major distributor of re-cycled materials and resources. The topographical conditions of the track make it suitable to hold and retain rainwater as well as to integrate pipes for a heat network. A new light rail system, could transport not only people, but also waste and materials between stations. These stations will become new centralities in the built environment, where new developments can connect to the heat network.

The premise of free heat can attract people to move away from subsided areas, so that these areas can be flooded and money and water could be saved because these areas would not need to be pumped anymore. These new lakes become a spatial quality for the region. Due to the transport capacity created on the coal track, several over dimensioned roads can be transformed to qualitative and livable streets. The Grote Baan that splits Houthalen in two can become an urban boulevard reuniting both sides of the street.

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Urban vision: blue, yellow and red strategies with Remo Landfill, new urban boulevard and coal track as heating network 23

2015

2030

Envisioning transition in Houthalen-Helchteren: systemic transect 24

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AQUACULTURE 2.0 Ford Genk as a renewable resource Wenyi Fan, Ye Ren

This project rethinks the Ford Genk site as a regional economic hub by transforming it into a productive aquaculture landscape.

Aquaculture has a long standing tradition in the region: patterns of fishing ponds tied to the natural streams are still readible in the landscape.

The recent closure of the Ford car manufacturing company in Genk left behind a huge void: 6500 jobs were lost and a huge terrain lies vacant. How can Genk South reinvent itself as a resilient ecomic, social and ecological hub? In order to make Genk South resilient for future crises, we propose a layered strategy of rethinking infrastructures and connecting cycles based on renewable resources.

Ford Genk is served by multiple car and train connections between industrial sites in the Genk territory, which are now abundant.

With the transition towards more sustainable transportation modes in mind, Genk’s mobility system is reimagined at the city scale. We propose to shift the single function fast highway-N702, into a multi-purpose infrastructure. This new slow boulevard and a new tramway on the former coal track integrate a water retention system which captures excess rainwater and upstream creeks in order to avoid flood risks downstream.

The Ford Genk site is transformed into an algae and fish ponds landscape. Besides producing biomass and fish, this productive landscape absorbs waste products from its surroundings. The ponds are created in the Ford Genk building footprints. To feed the algae and fishing pond production process CO2 is captured from the air and surplus waste water is redirected. The biomass produced can feed the Langerlo power plant as well as biofuel can be produced to support the city’s new mobility.

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2015

Proposed urban scheme for Genk

Algae and fish production Genk South 27

Envisioning transition in Genk: systemic transect 28

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FROM RUPTURE TO FRAME Infrastructural strategies for Antwerp’s 20th century belt Israel Ketema, Trang Khong Minh, Glenn Somers

The coming decades the City of Antwerp is expecting a population increase in its 20th century belt. How can we create a new identity for this area by envisioning how people and goods will move through the city in the post car(bon) era?

In order to incorporate the 20th century belt as a qualitative urban area, we propose to redirect heavy traffic outside the city along a larger ring outside the urban area. This will decompress the existing ring road which currently cuts right through the city of Antwerp.

In this proposal, we develop a strategy to transform transportation infrastructures from monofunctional ruptures in the landscape which mainly perform in one direction (East-West), to performative mulitlayered frames for development of more qualitative living environments. These frames combine qualities of both the existing performance, and add new transversal logics in a rhizomatic way.

The strategies for transforming infrastructures dramatically shift the role of the ruptures into integrated performative infrastructures for transportation of goods and people, insulation, water management and energy production in an era of transition towards more resource efficient lifestyles.

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2015

2025

2050

Antwerp’s 20th century belt as a qualitative urban environment 31

2015

2030

Envisioning transition in Antwerp’s 20th century belt: systemic transect 32

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1 2

4

3

Envisioning Transition II Four theses under development

Thesis guidance: Prof. Bruno De Meulder, Cecilia Furlan, Julie Marin, Matteo Motti 34

WASTESCAPE IN ANTWERP redesigning flows, reshaping the 20th century belt Caterina Rosso, Carmen Van Maercke

The City of Antwerp is facing important challenges in terms of ecology, infrastructure and programming due to the projected population increase, resource crisis and climate change. Looking for solutions, the attention shifts from the core of the city to its 20th century belt, a space characterised by a horizontally grown patchwork, whose spatial consumption can be reconverted and recycled, ready to receive a second wave of urbanisation. This thesis aims to convert the current urban and natural flows from a centralised and tree shaped structure to a cellular overlapping complex and multiscale infrastructure. By means of scenarios is searched for the best combination of reviving old waste practices and new technologies, in which the spatial occupation and impact are further conceived and explored by design.

By starting from the principle of economy of scales, that means recognizing the optimal scale for each flow that constitutes the system, a shift will be made from traditional engineering schemes and solutions, towards a social, economic and ecological infrastructure. By regarding waste as a resource, which can be mined at the place of production, trash can be seen as an opportunity for ecological valorisation and local economies, and as a catalyst of social capital. Changing the waste practices and infrastructures can in this sense instigate transition as starting point for imagining new urban configurations, typologies and densities.

In this manner the shift of waste practices grows to be a tool to restructure Antwerp’s 20th century belt and to define the new image of 21st century Antwerp.

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FROM GENERIC TO DIVERSE by connecting, disconnecting and reusing infrastructures Yufei Zhang

The territory of Campine region is like a palimpsest. The development from different period leaves traces that are perceivable here and there. The infrastructures functioned as carrying structure and was steering the appearance of urbanization during the landscape transformation process. The mono-functional infrastructures flourished the territory in different phases while now they are threating the development of this territory. The highly overinfrastructured situation requires a considerable cost to maintain it. Besides, it stimulates the carbased private mobility method.

The morphology of settlements in the Campine region shows an isotropic, diffuse and no apparent hierarchy structure with a generic landscape. Combining with road system, the settlements present a ribbon structure, which implies a highly car dependent mobility model. The rapid horizontal urbanization and shrinking at the same time consume massive agricultural land and threaten the ecological system. Meanwhile, the centralized supply system which creates long chain systems increases the unsustainability in terms of water, energy, waste and so on, especially in this diffuse territory.

The research is under a hypothesis that the infrastructures have unavoidable influences on shaping the urbanization in different scales and with different logics based on different types of infrastructure. Therefore, modification with strategies of the infrastructures can fundamentally transform the territory (DRAKE 2011). Infrastructures will not function as closed engineering system any more. Instead, an open system which embeds the ecologic and economic imperatives might reform the structure of the dispersion of the territory. The underused and misused space from the infrastructures is released as base of the urban tactics to create the synergies between different cycles and materials.

In the paradigm area, the strategies are given to test the hypothesis: Creating diverse valley-highland landscape by changing the profile of the infrastructures to cooperate with the decentralized grey water system to connect the water cycle. Reorganize the mobility system to make more efficient use of the existing infrastructures by connecting, disconnecting and reusing. Diversifying the morphology to stop the random land consuming expansion by intensifying the settlements.

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RECLAIMING THE EDGE Molding vacancies and disruptions along the Campine Plateau Fitri Maharani Indra

Before the colonization of Limburg, the landscape of Limburg was characterized by vast and unproductive patches of heath and forest. Then, large scale infrastructure was invaded to this region to bring the value to the land. The superimposition of infrastructures such as Albert Canal, railway and highway redefined Limburg identity, but at the same time, suppresses nature and produces un(der)used residual spaces. The rapid growth of infrastructure and urbanization becomes ruptures in the ecological continuation, creating fragment in the landscape and leading to the habitat isolation and loss over time. It has accumulated tensions between nature and urbanity, valued and residual spaces, infrastructural footprints and ecological connections. This reading of the territory raises the question about the role of infrastructure and the residual spaces it produces in future developments, while thinking about Limburg’s next transformation.

The accumulation of vacant lands and ruptured infrastructures at the edges of the Campine Plateau creates the opportunity to shift and catalyze urban transformation. Archipelagos of vacant spaces in the edge of Campine plateau will be transform as a new figure that will become points of tactical interventions to encourage ecology and urbanity. Appling the concept of landscape ecology principles, vacant and rupture spaces turn into part of the ecological network to connect between the massive ecological patches surrounded the Campine plateau.

Even though the ecological connection becomes the frontier, the new transformation of vacancies and disruptions in the edge of Campine plateau also involve multi approaches to address contemporary urban and natural issues. By transforming residual spaces to frames, it brings a new value to the land by enhancing the value of ecology, economy and urbanity in vacant spaces. Ecology is at the forefront while new recreational space is embedded, cultivation is enhanced and the potential of alternative energy is addressed.

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RESTORING THE MEUSE An amplified interaction in the crossing border area rearticulating natural and artificial rationalitiesties Piedad Hoyos Garcia

The river Meuse: Looking opportunities that complement the naturalization of natural and involve the naturalization of artificial water systems. Amplifying interactions with the territory.

Since the second half of the 20-century the European context has been a field of many examples of naturalization, afforestation and reforestation. The negative consequences of industrialization have impacted the planet; as well as it has caused dramatic climate changes. The entire layer of water landscape recognizable for people is only a fraction of several dramatic transformations. The rivers have been canalized, the connections with its tributaries have been piped; the water has been pumped and injected again. At the same time the construction of multiple canals has fragmented the territory instead of playing a horizontal relation with it as water normally does.

Within those tensions the challenge is to find in the European context a case where it was possible to reveal and understand the pressures and interactions between the natural and artificial systems. With this work we attempt to study the on-going transformation of artificial water infrastructures (canals) and the different goals of projects that involves articulation of natural and artificial water systems of the valley of the Meuse River. The main goal is looking for a strategy that facilitate the naturalization of artificial systems close to urban areas.

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LANDSCAPE Spring 2015

URBANISM

STUDIO

This studio tests landscape urbanism approaches to rethink infrastructures by using them as backbones for connecting (wasted) cycles of energy, water, materials,… The Landscape Urbanism studio’s site of investigation is the Campine Region in Flanders, covering the outskirts of Antwerpen and the Central part of the province of Limburg until Liège and the Meuse river.