KS
K.W. Smits
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1
Heyvaertwijk in Anderlecht, Brussels, is a neighbourhood whose residents are unfairly treated. Public and private space keeps being taken away from them. The streets are dominated by the car trade. Safe, usable and green public space is barely present. And yet the people who live here have built something real. Community, warmth, pride. That is easy to miss if you do not stop to look.
This project stopped to look. It moved through the neighbourhood on foot, through conversation and direct encounter, before arriving at a proposal. Not to fix the neighbourhood, but to support what is already there. To give residents the space and housing they deserve and have long been denied.
The focus is Sergeant De Bruynestraat, a street on the east side of the Abattoir that comes alive on market days but goes quiet the moment the stalls are gone as faced by closed walls. Four buildings are proposed along this route: Hoek, Eetzaal, 1820 and De Herberg. Together they define a new public square. One with eyes on the street, life at different hours and a reason to be there beyond Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
This is a possibility. One in which residents can claim and build upon their space. ...
This project stopped to look. It moved through the neighbourhood on foot, through conversation and direct encounter, before arriving at a proposal. Not to fix the neighbourhood, but to support what is already there. To give residents the space and housing they deserve and have long been denied.
The focus is Sergeant De Bruynestraat, a street on the east side of the Abattoir that comes alive on market days but goes quiet the moment the stalls are gone as faced by closed walls. Four buildings are proposed along this route: Hoek, Eetzaal, 1820 and De Herberg. Together they define a new public square. One with eyes on the street, life at different hours and a reason to be there beyond Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
This is a possibility. One in which residents can claim and build upon their space. ...
Heyvaertwijk in Anderlecht, Brussels, is a neighbourhood whose residents are unfairly treated. Public and private space keeps being taken away from them. The streets are dominated by the car trade. Safe, usable and green public space is barely present. And yet the people who live here have built something real. Community, warmth, pride. That is easy to miss if you do not stop to look.
This project stopped to look. It moved through the neighbourhood on foot, through conversation and direct encounter, before arriving at a proposal. Not to fix the neighbourhood, but to support what is already there. To give residents the space and housing they deserve and have long been denied.
The focus is Sergeant De Bruynestraat, a street on the east side of the Abattoir that comes alive on market days but goes quiet the moment the stalls are gone as faced by closed walls. Four buildings are proposed along this route: Hoek, Eetzaal, 1820 and De Herberg. Together they define a new public square. One with eyes on the street, life at different hours and a reason to be there beyond Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
This is a possibility. One in which residents can claim and build upon their space.
This project stopped to look. It moved through the neighbourhood on foot, through conversation and direct encounter, before arriving at a proposal. Not to fix the neighbourhood, but to support what is already there. To give residents the space and housing they deserve and have long been denied.
The focus is Sergeant De Bruynestraat, a street on the east side of the Abattoir that comes alive on market days but goes quiet the moment the stalls are gone as faced by closed walls. Four buildings are proposed along this route: Hoek, Eetzaal, 1820 and De Herberg. Together they define a new public square. One with eyes on the street, life at different hours and a reason to be there beyond Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
This is a possibility. One in which residents can claim and build upon their space.
Coastal Catalyst
Energy Infrastructure and the Shaping of a Dutch Coastal Town
This thesis investigates how energy infrastructure has shaped the urban and economic development of Vlissingen, a Dutch coastal town positioned along the Scheldt estuary. Through a mixed-methods approach combining historical analysis, archival research, and spatial investigation, the study traces Vlissingen’s transformation across three infrastructural epochs: coal (Centrale Zeeland), nuclear (Borssele nuclear plant), and renewable energy (Borssele wind farms). These phases are contextualized within broader national strategies for industrial decentralisation and the evolving use of the North Sea as an energy landscape. Particular attention is given to Zeeland’s infrastructural position - connected to the national grid by a singular transmission line - underscoring its historical energy independence and regional distinctiveness. The analysis demonstrates that energy infrastructures have not only supplied power but actively orchestrated urban growth, influenced planning decisions, and redefined the city’s economic role within the Netherlands. While the arrival of offshore wind has repositioned Vlissingen as a node in the national energy transition, its socio-spatial impacts remain uneven and gradual. By foregrounding the spatial agency of infrastructure, the thesis contributes to debates on infrastructural urbanism and offers a lens for understanding peripheral cities navigating energy transition and national spatial planning regimes.
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This thesis investigates how energy infrastructure has shaped the urban and economic development of Vlissingen, a Dutch coastal town positioned along the Scheldt estuary. Through a mixed-methods approach combining historical analysis, archival research, and spatial investigation, the study traces Vlissingen’s transformation across three infrastructural epochs: coal (Centrale Zeeland), nuclear (Borssele nuclear plant), and renewable energy (Borssele wind farms). These phases are contextualized within broader national strategies for industrial decentralisation and the evolving use of the North Sea as an energy landscape. Particular attention is given to Zeeland’s infrastructural position - connected to the national grid by a singular transmission line - underscoring its historical energy independence and regional distinctiveness. The analysis demonstrates that energy infrastructures have not only supplied power but actively orchestrated urban growth, influenced planning decisions, and redefined the city’s economic role within the Netherlands. While the arrival of offshore wind has repositioned Vlissingen as a node in the national energy transition, its socio-spatial impacts remain uneven and gradual. By foregrounding the spatial agency of infrastructure, the thesis contributes to debates on infrastructural urbanism and offers a lens for understanding peripheral cities navigating energy transition and national spatial planning regimes.