West 8 Participates in Antwerp’s “Infrastructure in the City” Conference

All too often in daily practice, mobility infrastructure and urban design are treated as two separate entities. Infrastructure is considered to be the domain of the engineer while planning is often part of overlapping disciplines of architecture, social sciences and policy studies.

International phenomena (on congestion problems and heated discussions on the construction of new infrastructure) illustrate the tense relationship between infrastructure and the urban environment. The “Infrastructure in the City” congress aims to promote a more integrated approach and attitude to urban development. By dissecting the complex nature of successful infrastructure projects from a number of different professional perspectives.

West 8 representative Maarten van de Voorde, who has been involved in several of West 8’s major infrastructure projects such as the under tunneling of the M30 in Madrid and A2 highway in Maastricht, is one of 5 panel members who will lead a workshop on The Spatial Decomposition of Infrastructure at 13.45 on the 12th of May. The workshop examines how design (and the design process ) functions as the key to spatial integration of infrastructure. Other Panel members include Wouter Veldhuis of Must Urbanism and Aglaée Degros of Artgineering.

The conference is organised by the Flemish Association for Spatial Planning (VRP) and the Urban Studies Institute (USI) of the University of Antwerp.

For more information on the conference visit: Infrastructure in the City