Scheldepark Transferium is a great architectural concept which concerns the new generation of park and rides in Belgium.

Archtiect: NIO Architecten

Location: Linkeroever, Antwerpen, Belgium

Year: 2013

Design: NIO architecten, OKRA landschapsarchitecten, ADVIER mobility advisors

Design team: Joan Almekinders, Giacomo Garziano, Zineb Seghrouchni, Minze Walvius

Project's description: This project concerns the new generation of park and rides, those peripheral locations that do more than simply facilitate a rapid transfer. Through the Multi-Use Park and Ride research, we reveal what happens when diverse sectors – both public and private – work together so as to create this urban facility. Starting on the basis of a healthy business case ensures that lofty ambitions can be pursued in terms of the locations’ functionality and spatial quality. This approach banishes the association of park and ride facilities with desolate car parks and soulless concrete boxes.

On the left bank of Antwerp, the ‘other side of the Schelde’ regarded from the center, there is a P + R location in the making; hundreds of people are parking their cars on the roadside to continue their trip to the city center by tram on a daily basis. A built provision for these cars is highly necessary but the financial means are lacking.

The area around the site is a potential recreation zone; it is used by hikers, sailboats and other recreational users on an extensive way. The heavy infrastructure that crosses the area obstructs a better use.

In this proposal the P + R facility overcomes these physical barriers and stimulates recreational use. The starting point is to see this area as one scenic entity on the scale of the entire city, like a landscape park as a green force against the rising outskirts. The landscape is a continuous area from the north shore to the south shore with different atmospheres and zones. This is the green logo of the city of Antwerp. Part of the plan is a network of routes – for biking, skating and rollerblading, horseback riding, electric slow mobility (segways and golf carts) and nodes that bring program and infrastructure together, not just in the parking building but on a smaller scale as well.