Project info:
- Location: City of Doel, near Antwerp, Belgium
- Designer(s): Joke Vermeulen, Francis Catteeuw , Bram Van Cauter, Ioannis Gio
- Area:1150 Ha
In the Northern region of Belgium, between the Dutch border and one of Europe’s major ports, lays an area of small villages neighbored by one of two nuclear power plants in Belgium. This region of Antwerp has been a point of interest and conflict for future development by different parties. In our study we strive to create an independent strategy to create a solution for what seems a contradictio in adjecto.
Our approach combines the expansion of the harbor with the current “Sigma plan” and the closing of the nuclear power plant in a cost effective manner, while regenerating a new identity for the area. Water-management, harbor expansion and the creation of “new nature” thus form the parameters of this research by design.
What might seem a utopic design approach at first, should be read as a realistic point of view, introducing a reality shift of human intervention. For decades man has created artifacts/architecture unfavorable to nature, in this proposal we adapt specific architectural objects to a much needed function and recreate the natural landscape from scratch.
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