STW0033 – RUIEN – Centraal – Three Quays
design: image quality plan and spatial vision for a future-oriented waterfront business zone in the Scheldt Valley
type: urbanism and architecture
client: Province Oost-Vlaanderen
designteam urbanism and architecture: Studio Thomas Willemse
designteam urbanism and landscape: Atelier Horizon
expert ecology: Driekwart Groen
expert mobility: Traject
time: 2021 - 2023
The former industry has left an artificially raised island in the Scheldt Valley. Here there is now space for new future-oriented water-related production where the power plant once stood. The industry has also shaped a new green landscape that has spontaneously emerged in the cooling ponds, clay pits and on a mound of fly ash around the power plant. The island is linked to the territory by three main lines: the line of the river Scheldt, the central access road for the industry and the line of houses and villages on the border between the valley and hills.
Three quays form the interface between the industrial site and these lifelines of the territory: the river quay, the central quay and the village quay. They complete a structure for sustainable development of Ruien Centraal for mobility, energy, water and ecological continuity, ... Within this structure, fields (for buildings) form a flexible infill.
Transverse line plantings mark the fields, each located between two quays. The transverse line plantings of these 'coulissen', combined with retreated company façades, ensure uniformity of the landscape in the visual axis of the central quay road. A visual connection is created with the existing forest and green transition zones to the village quay. These transverse linear plantings - as opposed to line plantings along the road - open the view to the representative business facades as one enters the business zone.
Clear guidelines for the landscape and buildings formulate the ambitions for the qualities. They encourage future-oriented activity to make the best possible use of the available space: stacked production, utilising the roof area, ...