Antwerp, on the river Scheldt, is a port city and the most important city of Flanders and Belgium in economic terms.

Like most European cities, the city is faced, in a number of areas, with the typical features of a large city.

Antwerp and its districts have a surface area of 22,076 ha and the population is approximately 450.000 inhabitants.

The project area is situated in the north east of Antwerp within the 19th century ring, in the direct vicinity of the Central Station. The area is part of a larger residential area with hardly any cultural or sports facilities, with a housing density which is four times higher than in the rest of the city.

The housing infrastructure in the area is strikingly outdated and does often not meet the minimum demands of comfort and utilities. The number of inhabitants in the area is exceptionally stable, but the share of Belgian natives is going down faster than elsewhere in the city.

Until the sixties the area played an important role in the daily life of the people of Antwerp, because it was the area of major radial roads, the prestigious station as a node for public transport and it counted with the presence of shops with local and supra local functions.

In the second half of last century the economic power of the area weakened. The economic crisis took its toll on enterprises. New urban development regulations and lack of space drove successful companies to the outskirts of town. This phenomenon lead to more and more unoccupied houses.

Ageing and impoverishing local residents and the coming (and going) of migrants and ‘transit residents’ lead to a thorough change of the existing social structures. The neighbourhood started to reveal its greyness: the confrontation between numerous cultures, undesired uses (prostitution, amusement arcades, …), limited means of recreation and a lack of public spaces in open air created lots of problems of cohabitation.

The ultimate sign was the bankruptcy of the cinema complex ‘Rex’ in 1993, which threatened to paralyse the neighbourhood’s economic life completely. It was high time to boost investments in the area and to make the district liveable and congenial again.

In this sense the city developed a policy with proposals for actual interventions. Major documents translating the vision of the City of Antwerp on the redevelopment of the surroundings of the De Coninckplein are:

• Synthetic memo Global Zoning Plan Antwerp (1990)
• The structural draft for the station area (1994)
• For the tradespeople of the 21st century (1994)
• WOP Antwerp North (1995)
• The traffic amenities plan for the Urban district (1996)
• The Offerandestraat and surroundings dossier (1997)
• The development of a vision on the global vicinity of the central station (1997)
• The Objective 2 policy programme for Antwerp North-East (2000)

The structure map for the station area provides a summary of the socio-economic revaluation of the core area in a few main lines of thought:

• The competitive position of the area in relation to other urban centres in the city should improve: aim at an evenly spread and sufficiently varied range of cultural activities and possibilities of recreation. Strengthen the core activities and reassess the housing function.
• Open the barriers along the existing main road (East-West and North-South) to restore the relations between the different districts in the city: redevelopment should solve the problem of difficult "road crossing". Smooth and pleasant connections between the districts, streets and squares should be re-created for weak road users.
• The urban development and functional qualities of buildings and public spaces should be developed to a maximum: the positive image of such structures can (re)define the image of a certain neighbourhood. Well-considered redestination of strategically located unoccupied buildings can play an important role in all this.
• Solution-oriented interventions, formulated on the basis of an analysis of the ‘negative image’ of a neighbourhood: making car park buildings safe, disencouragement of all kinds of undesired dominant destinations (amusement arcades, prostitution, …).

For the significant amounts, required to achieve these projects, the town council of Antwerp was able to count on the support of different authorities.

• To start with the City took advantage of the incentive programme ‘Urban’ organised by the European Union to achieve the outlines of the structure map. Urban also dictated, besides improvements to infrastructure, the development of social networks, providing economic incentives and organising training for local residents. The City of Antwerp managed to apply these measures in an integrated manner.
• With the Social Incentive Fund (SIF) the Flemish government wants to support the amenities of towns and fight poverty of opportunities. The SIF started in 1996 and continued up to 2002. Antwerp invested a large part of the resources granted to it from this Fund in this project.

Finally, more than 30 million euro of investments went to this neighbourhood to give it a new zest.

In order to guarantee the visibility of the interventions, the City of Antwerp resolutely opted for a concentration of its investments. A number of proposals from the ‘structural draft of the station area’ have been achieved or are in full development and lie within walking distance of each other:

Prostitution was pushed back in the Korte Winkelhaakstraat, Lange Winkelhaakstraat and Schaafstraat and new projects are present there now:

• Design centre ‘nv de Winkelhaak’ (open since September 2002), a centre for product development and design, where young designers hire infrastructure and logistic support. The design centre rents out exhibition space for product presentations, exhibitions, workshops, … The design theme should provide a major economic incentive for the area
• The housing project ‘Schaafstraat’: the City sells the houses acquired by it to a project developer under certain conditions. He will erect a new estate project with 14 housing units.

Lots of unoccupied houses got a new destination:

• the former school building at the Sint-Elisabethstraat (1995) is now business centre NOA (1995), which rents out infrastructure and logistic support to starting companies in the neighbourhood.
• the old Permeke garage at the De Conincplein is being turned into a city library, a corporate knowledge network, a centre for participation and integration and a meeting place. It will open early 2005.
• the commercial buildiding Paris XL on the corner of the Offerandestraat and Dambruggestraat is put to commercial use again matching the design centre ‘nv de Winkelhaak’.
• For the inner area between the Offerandestraat and the Lange Beeldekensstraat (at the site of an unoccupied printer’s shop) a project is under development. By selling under certain conditions the city would like to see a housing and business project achieved on this spot.

In addition, different streets were rebuilt: Breydelstraat, Statiestraat, Van Kerckhovenstraat, Offerandestraat, Van Wesenbekestraat, Dambruggestraat, Lange Beeldekensstraat, Muizenstraat, Van Schoonhovenstraat, Greinstraat, Delinstraat, Sint-Elisabethstraat.

In the same context a number of squares not only got a new image but also a new function: the Sint-Jansplein with the construction of an underground car park, the Sint-Elisabethplein with NOA including the opening of a new metro station, the De Coninckplein in the context of the project and the old Permeke garage, the square at the Statiestraat with the arrival of the UGC cinema complex.

Since 1999 the City of Antwerp disposes of a team in charge of project development in the context of the incentive programmes.

The team set off with 6 people in 1999 and has now grown into a solid and multidisciplinary team of 18 staff members: architects, urban developers, landscaping architects, a social-economic geographer, a sociologist-urban developer, a topographer, a surveyor and administrative staff.

The strength of this team lies in the flexibility and dynamism of strongly motivated and devoted people who are continuously inspiring and motivating each other, driven by the passion for their profession. Members of different disciplines devoting themselves together and complementing each other. The result is an innovative approach for the City of Antwerp: the planning cell works thematically under the motto of being ‘dedicated to excellence’.

The core tasks of this team are situated in the development of field-oriented visions, preparing, executing and following up of renovation programmes, preparing and guiding core projects.

The team:

Agnieszka Zajac, Dries Willems, Ellen Lamberts, Filip Pittillion, Gabriëla Racanel, Gert De Keyser, Gert Van Oost, Hardwin De Wever, Heidi Vandenbroecke, Inneke Van Couteren, Jeffry Van Waeyenberghe, Johan Pieraerts, Kitty Haine, Koen Heyvaert, Kristof Boving, Lu D’hont, Nadia Van Aken & Tinka Baert

Besides the elaboration of this project (redevelopment De Coninckplein and surroundings), they are in charge in Antwerp of the planning process & vision development of:

• Spoorwegemplacement Noord (North Raiway Yard)

• Lobroekdok (Lobroek dock)
• Petroleum Instellingen Zuid (Oil Institutions South)
• Schipperskwartier (Seamen’s quarter)
• Bouwblokprojecten (Building block project)