Vittorio Romieri




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RingParkZuid




“Over the last decades, the ring road of Antwerp became a congested, polluting infrastructure in the middle of the city, a large obstruction between different neighbourhoods, massive in size, connecting different parts of Europe without creating any local value. At the south side three different highways are connected, resulting in an infrastructural ‘spaghetti knot’ . As part of a large operation of covering the ring road of Antwerp, and limiting its impact on the surrounding neighbourhoods, Ringpark Zuid tries to make the difference in not responding with adding more infrastructure but by adapting the existing one...”

The adaptation of the existing infrastructure consists in showcasing the possibility embedded into its over-scaled non-human structures and spaces, functional elements, and challenging the formality of over-designed public spaces, where the apparent aesthetical, finished and formal feature is not created by the design itself but by layers of administration and control (or so called maintenance). When it comes to public spaces, with their standard materiality, series of furniture that can easily be produced and substituted, etc., we loose the informality that existing space absorbs thanks to the use of citizens. Design through maintenance is possible when the different parties involved can influence each other (the designer, the client – who should speak for the user).

Adapting the as found situation means acknowledging the ecological and landscape features of its central core, too, defining a “new” strategy starting from the qualities already present on site, providing them room for growth.

In order to preserve the landscape core of this infrastructural node from further construction, the project introduces an enclosing figure (promenade) that also mediates between different, currently disconnected, neighbourhoods (a necklace of public spaces).  The promenade is an almost 6m wide concrete path that runs for ca 2.5 km from one side to the other of the park. It’s main feature is its edge, conceived as an over-sized borderstone and, especially, as a sitting element that provides constant view towards the infrastructural landscape.  To balance its mineral surface, the concrete pedestrian path is accompanied all along its 2.5km by a 1m green stripe which combination of vegetation allows for biodiversity and provides shadow in the park.  Having the function of binding the disconnected existing situation, the promenade design and construction has to deal with more or less difficulties, such as existing structures like bridges and existing roads, existing landscapes and, especially, existing defined properties.

(Text by 51N4E / ph by design team)