VIVA Architecture: Stapelstede

This masterplan for a new waterside residential development at the Old Docks in Ghent houses several buildings. Laid out parallel to the water, each building block has an inner common garden and is designed using numerous new housing typologies. The long strip of buildings is completed by a landmark tower.

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The site of the Old Docks in Ghent offers great potential for the development of a new waterside residential area. Within the next fifteen to twenty years the setting of the 3 oldest docks will transform in a completely new extension of the city.

Specific site parameters structure the masterplan of our proposal in order to strengthen the implantation of the city blocks as well as the quality of the housing units. As a consequence of the orientation of the site buildings are positioned parallel the dock to enjoy as much as possible from east-west sun.

The specific structure of the surrounding urban fabric is extended as far as the waterfront. The lower dwellings are proposed as an extension of the historical city center, across the boulevard of the existing housing and shops. The higher volumes are positioned at the water promenade, referring to the typology of the well-known dock warehouses. As foreseen in the specs, the tower will be a landmark for the whole project zone.

New ways of living

The visual and physical connection to the dock is essential for all users of the site, residents, passersby and visitors. Therefore 3 public connections / passages are implemented between dock and boulevard. Through double layering semipublic gardens with a lot of social interaction arise in the core of the city blocks. Lateral perspectives and views from these passages are introduced, in order to make sure that these courtyards will be visually connected to the public space.

The residential function gets added value from its implantation, exterior spaces and its relation to the immediate surroundings. In order to answer the program brief a variation of new housing typologies are introduced: gallery apartments, ‘front to back’ apartments, sidewise apartments, corner apartments, portico houses, twin houses, trio houses, duplex houses, terraced houses, maisonette houses, corner houses, quayside houses… A balanced mixture of cohabitants will live side by side between dock and boulevard.

Location : Ghent

Area : 19.500 m²

Date : 2014

Fact : 2nd place in the competition

Client : SOGent, Acasa Projects, Urban Link Group

Team : DDS & Partners Architects, Util Struktuurstudies and Boydens Engineering