The ambition to densify Antwerp’s twentieth-century belt demands new dwelling solutions and innovative typologies as well as the reimagining of the relations between built and open spaces to achieve attractive living environments. But that is not all: how can we overcome the difficulties presented by the characteristically fragmented territory and ownership patterns of this area? Besides thinking new spatial models, the housing production itself needs to be rethought as a chain of decisions and actions that generate the conditions allowing for smart solutions to emerge.

The reflection on ways to generate conditions favourable to the urban renewal of this territory – and a set of new tools and processes to assist it – stood at the core of the study. This research is deliberately partial, as it investigates the roles of financial institutions and operational instruments as crucial segments in the interplay between policy and inhabitants, on the one hand, and between housing forms and housing production, on the other. Indeed, the way in which they, a actors in the field, perceive certain developments can limit or facilitate opportunities.

On the one hand, we departed from this specific angle to formulate tangible innovative proposals that can help to reimagine and reactivate the housing production. On the other hand, we aimed to open up the conversation to all parties involved by implementing a specific approach in which the operational dynamics, spatial proposals and financial instruments are seen, visualized and discussed as a complex interplay, thus taking further steps towards a more integrated and integral housing policy in which spatial solutions are developed in conjunction with policies and operational actions.
This research by design thus only becomes relevant when made part of a bigger picture. Rather than an autonomous solution, we see this research as part of a programme that requires further development in order to drastically increase the variety and rapidity of the densification and renewal operations.

Following the study, the Lageweg pilot project was proposed to the municipality and followed up by 51N4E to test the strategies proposed by the study and to refine a replicable redevelopment model.

• Location

  Antwerp

• Client

  City of Antwerp

• Project

  Study

• Completion

  2014

• In collaboration with

  Connect & Transform

• 51N4E project team

  Freek Persyn, Johan Anrys, Dieter Leyssen, Annaïk Deceuninck, Tom Baelus, Ye Han, Samuel Jaubert de Beaujeu

• 51N4E involvement

  Full Process

• Exhibition

  StadBuitenStad, DeSingel International Art Campus

• Full publication

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