By Ine Heremans & Sara Janssens
It is a known fact that the world is urbanizing at a rapid pace. The United Nations (2019) estimates that by 2050 two thirds of the world’s population will live in cities. Focussing on Flanders, 90% of the population lives in urbanized areas with a total population density of 500 inhabitants per square kilometres. Flanders belongs to the thirty most populated areas in the world (World Population Review, 2023). To provide for this growing urban population, an increasing amount of land, often agricultural or forested areas, gets transformed into urban land (Hu et al., 2021).
To tackle this increase in concrete at a local scale, green and blue infrastructure gets introduced. An example of this is the garden street in which old pavements get replaced with different kinds of greenery and rain barrels. The increase of green allows water from rooftops to infiltrate into the soil. To obtain the desired outcome, collaboration with the local inhabitants is central as well as meeting their needs (Stad Antwerpen, n.d.).
Example of a garden street (Stad Antwerpen, n.d.).
The idea of garden streets seems beautiful, but what are the advantages of their existence? The main goal is to make the area more climate resilient. The addition of more green reduces the heat stress. Trees are able to provide extra shade and can decrease this heat stress better than grass, while the rest of the plants help with reducing the chance of flooding when heavy rain occurs. The leaves of the trees absorb, transmit and reflect solar radiation (Reuvekamp, 2020). It is important to keep in mind that the position of trees does matter in the street. Plants can modify the airflow of an area; however, trees can prevent the circulation of a cool summer breeze when they are planted without consideration (Perini et al., 2018; Mertens, 2021). Reducing the risk of flooding happens because of the reintroduction of grass plots and/or garden lawns, instead of concrete pavements, which results in a more permeable surface. Rainwater can then infiltrate into it and not run off into the sewage system (Perini et al., 2018).
Garden streets also try to conserve water by placing rain barrels and wells. These become street water supplies and can be used by the residents to wash cars and water plants (Perini et al.; Stad Antwerpen, n.d.). The addition of more green and blue infrastructure increases the overall quality of the area. It becomes a more pleasant place to live in. Also giving attention to the traffic situation of the street and finding the safest solution, such as widening the binding jets (Stad Antwerpen, n.d.).
The pilot project to construct garden streets in five districts across Antwerp, Belgium, started in 2017. The main goal was to adapt these areas to the consequences of climate change. A side was to encourage interactions among citizens and create a comfortable environment to live in. The quietness and added nature encourage children to play outside, which is a stark contrast in a busy city such as Antwerp (Stad Antwerpen, n.d.).
As the circumstances of each street are unique, each street deserves an adapted implementation to meet these (Stad Antwerpen, n.d.). The project enjoyed the cooperation of the locals as well as other actors such as environmental services, landscaping services, city makers, etc. Close cooperation with sewage managers is important as they are interested in finding alternatives for dealing with stormwater to unburden the sewage system (Vlario, 2020).
The design process can be broken down into four phases. In the first phase, the designer informs the residents about the concept of garden streets and discusses the purpose of the project. This session does not have any concrete plans yet. The second stage requires the residents to show/develop their ideal garden street. Within smaller groups, they make plans/maquettes with a designer, which then gets linked back to the whole group (Stad Antwerpen, n.d.).
The next phase is a trial. Temporary exhibits of preliminary designs get installed in the intended streets to detect the pros and cons to adjust the design. This ended in November 2019. After this phase, the final design gets envisioned. The feedback from the testing phase gets taken into account. The construction of the first garden street started in 2020 and by now Antwerp has realized 8 garden streets: Lange Riddersstraat, Wasstraat, Woeringenstraat, Brouwerstraat, Berthoutstraat, Bloemstraat, Jan Olieslagersstraat and Aziëlaan (Stad Antwerpen, n.d.).
Map of Antwerp with the garden streets as dots, the inset map shows the streets of Berchem.
The case of Berchem consists of the streets Wasstraat, Woeringenstraat, Brouwerstraat and Berthoutstraat with a construction time of six years.
Timeline showing the course of the realization of garden streets in Berchem (District Berchem, 2018).
This particular neighbourhood consists of 175 houses of which 72 are part of the project (District Berchem, 2018). We noted during our visit that grass and gardens alternated in front of the buildings. The border’s layout also differs. Some just had plain grass, while others looked cheerier containing flowers as visible in the picture. In addition, some rainwater barrels and benches were present. Some residents even installed a bracket to park bicycles in front of their houses. In the bicycle shed, water infiltration was also considered by placing a grass layer.
The main focus of the greening process was accessibility. Emergency vehicles must be able to reach the street easily. Furthermore, residents must still reach their homes. Also, because parking is scarce in Antwerp, access to their garages must remain present. This decreases the number of parking spaces on the public road, which required two strips of paving with grass tiles between them to remain (Berchem TV, 2016).
The drawbacks residents pointed out is that dogs need to do their business between the plants. Also, trucks from the Albert Heijn located close by still drive through the street. Overall, the residents are satisfied with the addition of green in the streetscape and the added quietness as a result (Van Wynsberghe, 2022).
Picture taken on 27th April 2023 in the Berthoutstraat at the intersection with the Wasstraat.
Sources
Berchem TV. (2016). Buurt tekent mee aan tuinstraten van Oud-Berchem. Retrieved April 28, 2023 from http://www.berchem.tv/content/buurt-tekent-mee-aan-tuinstraten-van-oud-berchem-video
District Berchem. (2018). Tuinstraten wat vooraf ging en de toekomst Retrieved April 28, 2023 from. https://assets.antwerpen.be/srv/assets/api/download/144fffbe-92dc-4f1d-aa18-0598fb157983/B800332_tuinstraten_7x_1000x1400mm_def.pdf
Hu, J., Wang, Y., Taubenböck, H., & Zhu, X. X. (2021). Land consumption in cities: A comparative study across the globe. Cities, 113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2021.103163
Mertens, C. (2021). Antwerpen heeft zijn eerste officiële tuinstraat https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2021/10/31/antwerpen-heeft-zijn-eerste-officiele-tuinstraat/ (25/4/2023)
Perini, K., Chokhachian, A., & Auer, T. (2018). Green streets to enhance outdoor comfort. In Nature Based Strategies for Urban and Building Sustainability. Elsevier Inc. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-812150-4.00011-2
Reuvekamp, T. (2020). Effective policy instruments to successfully involve communities in the implementation of green-blue measures in the public space. 1–20. http://essay.utwente.nl/80665/
Stad Antwerpen. (n.d.). Pilootproject Tuinstraten. Retrieved April 25, 2023, from https://www.antwerpen.be/info/59d738412d2a3cb90c44ccef/pilootproject-tuinstraten
United Nations. (2019). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision. In Demographic Research (Vol. 12). https://population.un.org/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2018-Report.pdf
Van Wynsberghe, E. (April 16th, 2022) Buurtreportage. Tuinstraatjes Berchem zijn voorbeeld klimaatbestendige stad: “Hier waan je je op reis”. Het Nieuwsblad. https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20220415_95294427
Vlario. (2020) Inzending Vlario innovatieprijs 2020: Tuinstraten als goenblauwe aders. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from https://www.vlario.be/site/files/downloads/VLARIO_Innovatieprijs2020_Tuinstraten_Projectfiche.pdf
World Population Review. (2023). Countries by Population Density | Countries by Density 2023. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-by-density
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