Lecture

New Ghent: park, street, square

Transition from a social housing enclave to a sustainable future perspective

2023 Belgium Ghent Houses

Thursday

14.12

20:00

In collaboration with:

With the support of:

New Ghent is undergoing a metamorphosis. This large-scale operation falls within the ambitious vision of the social housing company WoninGent to provide more high-quality social housing in the growing city of Ghent, which is struggling with severe housing shortages. Various teams of architects are following two main lines in the creation of a contemporary residential park: making connections to the larger urban whole and creating cohesion on a human scale. We dive into New Ghent.

Intro
Elly Van Eeghem

Speakers
De Smet Vermeulen Architects + De Nijl Architects
DBLV architects + TABarchitects

New Ghent is a social housing enclave behind the Zwijnaardsesteenweg. Five of the seven high-rise strips will be replaced by open building blocks, with low-rise buildings along the street and towers in the park. The park, set up around a wide path, will be enlarged and given access plazas. The plan provides a sustainable future outlook for the neighbourhood and a spatial framework for replacement construction, improvement of facilities and connections, and addressing public space.

Elly Van Eeghem (TBC)

Elly Van Eeghem founded CAMPUS in 2017: a collective design studio for public space in the southern edge of Ghent. This studio builds the imagination and experience of the square, the street, the park, the parking,… together with people from the neighbourhood as co-makers: inventors, designers, builders or co-creators. They set to work with a focus on all open or hidden green spaces in and around the neighbourhood, looking for places for people.

De Smet Vermeulen

Dierendonckblancke