Residential vision Dendermonde

In collaboration with PT Architects, we worked out this assignment in four steps. First, we carried out an extensive housing needs study down to the district level, followed by a thorough housing needs survey. Based on all this data and through an intensive participation process with citizens, city services and other stakeholders, we worked out a supported densification strategy. Finally, we converted it all into a regulatory policy using a detailed action plan. This also included a handy tool for the environment service. That tool helps to apply the vision smoothly when assessing environmental permit applications.

The city deliberately chooses a well‑considered densification strategy based on one guiding insight in line with the Flemish “bouwshift”: the greatest residential potential lies within the existing urban fabric, not in new subdivisions.
That is why the municipality is developed according to three directions depending on the type of area:

1. Preserving the residential ribbons in the open space: here, protecting open space is central. This means that no subdivision of existing homes and no additional new subdivisions are allowed.
2. Maintaining the villages in the open space: the village character must be preserved, which means that only small‑scale additions are possible.
3. Growth zone in the urban area: due to a wide range of public transportation, amenities, and mobility options, densification is possible. But the same rule applies: densification must never happen automatically, only when it benefits the neighborhood and its residents.

Given the large diversity between the neighborhoods in the urban area, this growth zone is further differentiated into four subzones: leverage areas that can raise broader residential quality, neighborhoods with high visual and spatial quality where spatial quality comes first, monofunctional subdivisions where transformation must be approached carefully, and urban ribbons that require their own specific approach. This results in a fine‑grained strategy that takes identity, context, and feasibility into account. Growth is not a goal in itself: quality is always the guiding principle, supported by an instrument framework that anchors this vision in concrete terms.