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Metropolitan Coast Landscape 2100
Architecture Workroom took part in the research by design that was carried out for the ‘Metropolitan Coast Landscape 2100’ project. Together with Xaveer De Geyter Architects, Maat designers and H+N+S Landscape Architects, under the label ‘Atelier Visionaire Kust' in the third stage it build on earlier study assignments of the Flemish government: In fase 1 the analysis of the coastal system and in fase 2 the definition of the design tasks and possible directions for development.
more information (Dutch)

The aim of the ‘Metropolitan Coast Landscape 2100’ is using research by design to draw the perpectives and conditions of a sustainable future for the Belgian coast. By setting the time horizon at 2100, priority is given to a long-term approach to the coast. The word ‘metropolitan’ refers, among other things, to the added value the study intends to offer by viewing the coast from a broader perspective, the large cross-border scale of the coastal territory. The ‘landscape’ element indicates that landscape considerations provide a general basis for coastal development. By combining the three notions – 2100, metropolitan and landscape – a new framework is put forward for the development of building blocks that can potentially contribute to ongoing processes within the existing policy, such as Flemish Bays and the Flanders Spatial Policy Plan.
In this third stage, the ‘Visionary Coast Studio’ will be examined several specific elements:
- What challenges will present themselves in each design task in 2100? And what are the shortcomings of our present solutions and policy? This will be examined by topic: accommodation, sea defences, water systems, harbour & logistics, agriculture and energy.
- What possible answers can we formulate to each of the design tasks? Which are the more extreme and which the ‘milder’ possible directions for development?
- Speculative research by design will be employed to examine how various challenges and directions of development interact, both along the whole coast and in focus areas and test locations.