The Delta Dense Line

A project by : An project by Ane de Souza Ferreira da Costa and Christiane Gerwenat

Integrated Project III – Cross-border-thinking: European Development Corridor

Teaching staff: Andreas Klozoris and Eva Hoppmanns
Summer semester 2022

The Delta Dense Line is a strategy, which compresses settlement structures to one linear superstructure. The accommodation of the future increased population in limited space is an approach in order to encounter the urban sprawl in the suburbs, housing pressures in the urban areas and gives solutions to the population decrease in the rural areas. The Project is located in the Heart of Europe; the Eurodelta Corridor. It is aiming to connect Calais to Cologne via Lille, Brussel, Leuven, Maastricht, Aachen and Düren. It studies the area from various aspects with an audited focus on population demographics and settlement structures (1). A multi-layered data basis is created which helps to identify the challenges and opportunities for the future development of the megaregion and further develop a vision that addresses those (2).

The strategy is based on the development of a high density corridor by providing new settlement typologies (3, 4) to ensure a high quality of life and renaturalizing landscapes within a cross border region. Our vision is the application of a new type of urban settlement system to respond to one of the main challenges of today’s urban planning: the accommodation of more and more people in a limited space, in a high quality and sustainable living environment. At the same time, it strengthens the conservation and development of nature and landscape. The presented vision is applied to the Maastricht area with a regional plan (5)  in order to adapt the approach to realistic conditions. This idea is further detailed by sections (6) and atmospheric drawings (7).