Ideation, deviation, persistence, and implementation – Six decades of pedestrianization in Antwerp’s urban core

This paper focuses on the process behind the post-war pedestrianization of the urban core of Antwerp, Belgium and specifically the role of the urban design imaginary of pedestrianized public spaces in this process. It investigates how pedestrianization as an urban design concept and image first arrived in Antwerp, how it evolved over time, and how it contributed to the implementation of pedestrian projects across the urban core. The research underscores the persistence of the idea of pedestrianization beyond individual actors, across time, and through political processes. The eventual pedestrianization of Antwerp’s urban core and its main shopping street the Meir represents the realization, maturation and evolution of the urban design idea that had persisted and circulated for decades. This research stands as an example of how urban design concepts are shared, adapted, and localized across national, ideological, and professional divides. The process of pedestrianization in Antwerp provides generalizable case study of how urban design concepts may adapt and be realized in pluralistic stakeholder settings over time. Though the conceptual roots of pedestrianization are grounded within modernism, its implementation process evolved into something much more tactical and flexible than the original modernist comprehensive plan.