wolvenberg watergarden
Inspiration is from Junya Ishigamis Biotop watergarden. Trees and puddles create a mesmerising space, where visitors can jump between the stones and explore the flora.
green ring vision
The ring road was built in the 1960’s and replaced the Brialmont fortifications from the 19th century. The ring road is highly dominated by road infrastructure, disconnecting the inner and outer city. However, it has potential of becoming a strategic area in the future city structure, turning into the Green Ring. The City of Antwerp has presented a plan with specific strategies for the Green Ring, focusing on green spaces that connects the inner and outer city, creating habitats for flora and fauna as well as for the people of Antwerp.
brialmont fortifications
To realise the Brialmont fortifications, huge earthworks took place. Soil was removed to make room for the forts and ramparts. Water canals were introduced and had to be dug out. The soil could then be used to build the ramparts. The principles historically used, ground manipulation and water introduction, have become factors informing a new language for the green ring, to bring a sense of what used to be in a present context. source of images: photograph - Natuurpunt Antwerpen Stad, map - Old Maps Online
parks of berchem - existing conditions
A specific site along the Green Ring has been chosen to explore certain strategies, namely the parks of Berchem. The parks include a few traces from the fortification, water bodies, topographical variations and masonry ruins. However, today the parks are fragmented by the ring road infrastructure.
proposal - landscape palimpsests
The method used for developing this project has partly been through landscape palimpsests. Designing through palimpsests is not about preserving the past but to celebrate a collective memory of the site for the users, even if it just provokes a vague mental presence that there used to be something different at this place.
layers
These diagrams shows the layers used to structure the landscape. A superimposed grid, interrupted by the existing water bodies and topographical remains, forms the large scale organisation of the landscape. The ground manipulation and water introduction follows the grid. Desire lines take users across the site whereas meandering paths allows them to stroll in the landscape. The new trees are indicated in orange and strategically placed along the edges to create a buffer between the roads and the park.
manmade landscapes
Antwerp is flat in its topography and the differences in height this section shows are all manmade interventions. The red-dotted line indicates today’s ground condition, and how the thesis proposal further uses ground manipulation to form the landscape.
wolvenberg & brilschanspark
Examples of spaces created with ground manipulation and water introduction.
rainwater & filtration
One of the principles - water - has been introduced in relation to arising issues of urban runoff. Through sustainable urban drainage systems, the landscape forms elements to collect and filter rainwater and recharge the groundwater. The theme of water filtration has informed the program of the building; a bath house. Visitors can enjoy the experience of swinging in pools that are naturally cleaned through gravel beds and aquatic plants. As water evaporates, the pools will be refilled with rainwater collected from the roof. The filtration process becomes a visual part of the building experience and tectonics.
