Client: IABR, Province of East Flanders
Team: Etienne Schillers, Qinyi Zhang, Jordi de Vlam, Uberto Degli Uberti
In collaboration with: Architecture Workroom Brussels, Lab-U - EPFL Chiara Cavalieri
Photo credits: AWB, studio

The core region of East Flanders (Dutch: ‘Oost-Vlaams Kerngebied’ or OVK) is a network of cities and municipalities in the urban conglomeration surrounding Ghent, Flanders, Belgium. It is expected that between now and 2050 the population will grow by approximately 15 to 25 percent. Across the whole province of East Flanders this accounts for approximately 130,000 new households. How do we approach this development without further encroaching on open space? Where will these people live? How do we address the increasing demand for facilities, care services and education? And how will all these people get from A to B? In recent decades, the encroachment on open spaces for development has been an unstoppable process that has had a defining role in the continued functioning of the East-Flemish core region. IABR-Atelier OVK is investigating whether the reverse is also possible, as well as whether and how we should tackle the housing challenge while taking all requirements into account. After all, more inhabitants means more human capital, increasing socio-economic dynamism and increasing critical mass. Building on the knowledge and insights present in the region, the Atelier is exploring which challenges and opportunities are on the table, particularly in the fields of the productive landscape, circular economy and shared mobility. These three thematic pillars form the basis for the first part of this work, in which we assess how the region functions today and which challenges or opportunities currently present themselves. By assessing various layers of information, a preliminary picture is sketched of the region. In the second part of the work, by means of scenario development, different trajectories are explored with respect to the sustainable future of the region. The necessity of a climate-neutral 2050 is recognised by all. The paths that could lead to this are however manifold. A number of fundamental choices present themselves at the starting blocks of each possible trajectory. Based on three future scenarios we are attempting to determine the most preferential path and to establish how current undertakings relate to these long-term trajectories. These scenarios invite discussion and hold the power to bring disparate parties together around a shared task. Maintaining and improving quality of life, bolstering the sustainability and resilience of constructed environments and protecting open spaces against the pressures of urbanisation represent the main challenges tackled in these scenarios. In each case, the social and physical sustainability of the constructed and infrastructural space is always taken into account. These scenarios propose a conscious effort to repair and reinforce the various forms of housing and ways of living in relation to their infrastructural and ecological carriers. They explore how new life cycles and innovations can be employed and how the existing urban and rural capital can be looked at with new eyes, without denying the current, diffuse Flemish character. By anchoring the investigation in the existing spatial capital, we hope to address both further dispersed development and its current counterpart, arbitrary densification. The maps and scenarios are the result of various workshops, interviews, location visits and map exercises. In them is assembled all our acquired and developed knowledge of the region. They are the basis for the Atelier’s conversations with citizens, public actors, stakeholders and experts towards the co-creation of the future of East Flanders’ core region.