LAAGLANDPARK: OPMAAK MASTERPLAN EN UITVOERING GROENPROJECT, ANTWERPEN
The two scales inherent to the understanding of this landscape have determined widely divergent project processes that we should understand and combine with integrating solutions. What we apprehended from our careful analysis of the territorial dynamics was the need to unfold these two scales into four distinct operational levels:
— The level of the highway (at the highest level) associated to the understanding of the landscape as a whole;
— The level of local traffic (the second level) formed by the various systems which connect Merksem district to the other city-zones, including the connexions to the highway itself.
— The level of pedestrian and bicycle circulation (the third level) reserved for the circulation pedestrians and cyclists and related to the landscape’s use and possible leisure-associated mechanisms. This would be the level on which the park itself would be made operational, supported by the cellular matrix of the last level
— The level of the large landscape cells (fourth level), of an agricultural, sporting, or free use nature.
The importance of these four levels is not solely related to the distinct speed and uses predicted for each one, but also of their relationship to water. This territory’s proximity to water and its possible periodic floods, made the definition of height urgent for each level. It would also be through these different project levels that it would be possible to reinforce the relations between the landscape’s different speeds.
Water management became one of the main restrictions to the proposal. On the lower levels, flooding would actually be considered as a component of the project. Solutions to these large clearings would determine the necessary adaptation to temporary floods. The higher levels, reserved for the pathways, would be located so as to avoid flooding.
