oostkamp, belgium
The objective of the workshops on the city of Oostkamp, developed with the participation of external experts and municipal administration personnel, was to identify the areas of strategic intervention and the mechanisms to convey this intervention. Its purpose: to make it evolve towards a greener, more integrated and sustainable city in order to reinforce coexistence and improve the quality of life. The work thus carried out has served as the basis for a process of citizen participation that has defined the Oostkamp 2030 Agenda.
Three interrelated areas of work are identified: spatial, social and environmental. And particular emphasis is made on the first, with three sub-areas to consider: public spaces, mobility and building.
Two ideas plan on the set of proposals and reflections:
On the one hand, reinforcing the network structure, so that the connectivity and synergy between the parts enhance the values of each one of them and allow the whole to reach a higher stage, be these the activities that take place in the city (commercial, business, educational, housing, leisure, sports, cultural ...), be them the pieces of the urban structure (public spaces, means of transport, parking lots ...).
On the other hand, reinforcing the quality of the tangible elements of this network, whether they are public spaces or the build-up areas, so that this improvement has a direct impact on the quality of life.
This leads to:
- - establish connectors that articulate the whole of the urban fabric through its public spaces and between these and the surrounding landscape
- - introduce green into heavily paved areas
- - improve the quality of existing green spaces
- - facilitate access to the urban centre, but prevent the transit of vehicles through it, by reconsidering the current characteristics of the streets
- - redefine the parking policy in the urban centre establishing a clear hierarchy of typologies based on the allowed parking time and its cost
- - promote intermodality between environmentally friendly means of transport (on foot, by bicycle, by public transport)
- - articulate a powerful and vehicle-free central core around the church and the town hall
- - redefine the urban centre between this central core and the administrative area of OostCampus to the south
- - increase residential density by taking advantage of gaps between consolidated areas
- - define new building typologies for those unbound areas
- - enhance heritage elements as articulators of a new urban identity
In order to develop the ideas and schemes resulting from this work, a triple methodology is established that will define the roadmap to follow:
- - holding of thematic workshops that allow for in-depth reflection on specific areas of the urban fabric around which uncertainties still hover.
- - development of projects for those public spaces, residential units or facilities with already delimited problems
- - preparation of thematic studies establishing the framework for advancing the quality of public spaces, mobility vectors or parking needs