Hans Leinfelder

KU Leuven | ku leuven · Faculty of Architecture

As for other international contexts, in Flanders, small and medium-sized cities and towns are becoming increasingly important gateways for newcomers (Vandekerckhove et al. 2022). Flemish Integration policies aim to ensure autonomous and equal participation, and accessibility of all facilities and services. However, this research shows that these go...

The current state of our planet gives rise to a range of new perspectives in the environmental humanities that take « multispecies » viewpoints into account. These voices are often framed as « more-than-human » research, as they criticize the deeply anthropocentric worldviews that fuel environmental degradation and acknowledge the imbricated nature...

This paper examines how different housing actors (Social Resilience Cells and their partners, Institutional Structures, Neighborhood Communities) in post-Katrina New Orleans have activated their social capital into institutional capital. It uses a critical up-to-date synthesis of social capital enriched by governance theories to investigate how new...

Vanuit maatschappelijke vraagstukken als bodemzorg, watervoorziening, biodiversiteit, etc. is de noodzaak tot het terugdringen van het aandeel verharding op de beleidsagenda geplaatst. Centraal in het systemisch onthardingsproject ‘Boer ruimt veld’ staat de vraag hoe ontharding van vrijkomende hoeves niet alleen zorgt voor een minder verzegelde bod...

The challenge of urban informality has received increasing attention, motivating conceptual debates and schemes for responsive intervention. In Latin America, these concerns have manifested in a wide range of spatial interventions incorporating public space as an essential tool for the social transformation of their informal urban areas. Although t...

De voorbije decennia hielden in Vlaanderen elk jaar gemiddeld 1.000 land- en tuinbouwbedrijven ermee op, terwijl er maar een 150-tal nieuwe bij kwamen. Ten opzichte van 2005 is het aantal bedrijven met ongeveer een derde teruggelopen en de komende tien tot 15 jaar zal naar alle waarschijnlijkheid nog eens de helft van de bestaande landbouwbedrijven...

It is known that migration is primarily an urban phenomenon and so is the settlement of refugees in their host country. However, national figures and various international studies have shown how migrants increasingly expand their housing search towards smaller, medium-sized, and suburban gateways. In Belgium, unlike neighbouring countries like Fran...

Planning approaches that associate informality with illegality and marginalization result in social dislocation and imposed restrictions in many cities in the Global South. Alternative discourses reflect on the necessity of integrating diverse logics of spatial production, sociocultural specificity, and the recognition of rights in historically neg...

Given the increasing number of people seeking refuge in Belgium and across Europe more broadly, it is essential that governments assume responsibility for the integration of refugees into society. An essential aspect of this process is the provision of a durable path from shelter to housing. Choosing a place of residence, and the success in obtaini...

Urban sprawl is often portrayed as a (quasi-)natural process, as inevitable and taking place behind our backs. However, we claim that it is co-produced by government: Governments not only allow sprawl to happen, but often also incentivise and stimulate it, either knowingly or unintentionally. We substantiate this claim by comparing urban developmen...

Sinds 1962 tracht de overheid stapsgewijs de ruimte-inname te vertragen met een kwaliteitsgerichte benadering. Met een sterke klemtoon op het opleggen van beperkingen aan de lagere niveaus, probeert ze vat te krijgen op een aantal mechanismen die ontwrichtend werken op de ruimtelijke ontwikkeling. Vaak willen lokale politici echter niet betutteld w...

Deze reflectie over de ontwikkeling van hedendaagse commons start vanuit de stellingname dat commons vandaag hybride arrangementen zijn die niet in isolement, maar veeleer in relatie staan tot overheden en economische actoren. In het voorgaande hoofdstuk kwam duidelijk naar voor dat er bij het trage wegennetwerk een veelheid van actoren betrokken i...

The societal and political support for reducing urban sprawl in the densely urbanized landscape of Flanders seems to be growing, albeit slow. In its white paper for a new strategic planning document, the Flemish government proposes an evolution towards a zero consumption of open space for urban development in 2040, compared to the 6 ha per day now....

The twenty-first century has seen a remarkable revival of interest in landscape by disciplines of spatial design, such as landscape architecture, urban design and architecture. Inspired by the principles of the European Landscape Convention (ELC), several authors have suggested extending the concept of landscape into a metaphor for inclusive multip...

The specific spatial context in the densely urbanized northern part of Belgium, Flanders, offers a sort of laboratory conditions to study, design and plan fragments of open space in an urbanizing context. A chronological analysis of documents in three periods relevant to Flemish spatial planning policy allows us to conclude that one single planning...

The boundary between the Flemish urban and rural areas has faded in recent years and a fragmented spatial structure has emerged. The 'open space' is evolving from an agricultural production area to a semi-urbanized consumption area. On the one hand the public use of open space seems to be growing, particularly because of the success of recreational...

The open space in Flanders is subjected to different transformation processes. These processes are related to dynamic interactions within an urbanizing society and to competition for space by an increasing number of functions. Despite the acknowledgement of dynamic land use demands, the current categorizations of land use and land cover are not alw...

- De lintbebouwing in Vlaanderen is het unieke resultaat van een samenspel van economische, politieke, culturele en fysische factoren, maar een accuraat kwantitatief inzicht ontbreekt momenteel. - De alomtegenwoordig verspreide (lint)bebouwing in Vlaanderen maakt het moeilijk om duidelijke morfologische grenzen te bepalen tussen het buitengebied en...

Uit een historische analyse van het beleidsdiscours over open ruimte in de Vlaamse ruimtelijke planning, blijkt er reeds meer dan 45 jaar sprake van een dominant planningsdiscours dat stad en platteland – stedelijk gebied en buitengebied – als functioneel en morfologisch te scheiden gebieden beschouwt. Vandaag staat de validiteit van dit dominante...

In 1997 werd het Ruimtelijk Structuurplan Vlaanderen (RSV1) goedgekeurd. In dit strategisch ruimtelijke beleidsplan werden de gewenste ruimtelijke ontwikkelingen voor een termijn van 10 jaar vastgelegd. Twaalf jaar later is het tijd voor een actualisering. De minister en zijn administratie hebben beslist om het Ruimtelijk Structuurplan Vlaanderen g...

In spite of a Flemish planning policy that strived the last decennia at conserving the city (or urban areas) and countryside both as functionally and morphologically separable entities and as antipoles, it is observed that due to an unrestrained suburbanisation city and countryside become increasingly interwoven in Flanders. People still reproduce...

Bijlage 1: Projectenlijst In bovenstaande lijst staan de projecten (vanaf 2000 of bijzonder relevant) die doorgegeven zijn door onze contactpersonen en die we op websites van universiteiten en instellingen hebben gevonden. Deze lijst is waarschijnlijk niet volledig. Suggesties voor aanvulling zijn dan ook steeds welkom. Bibliografie: Overzicht van...

The Centre for Mobility and Physical Planning of the Ghent University coordinates a two-year research project about the preconditions for sustainable land use by agriculture in (the Flemish) urbanising network society. The project questions the traditional legitimacy of agriculture in planning to claim the majority of the surface, merely because of...

Flanders is very densely populated. This has resulted in an outspread settlement structure, characterised by an enormous amount of residential dwellings, commercial and economic activities all over the countryside. Major parts of Flanders are urbanised and/or still urbanising. Former vast agricultural areas, even those that were suitable for agricu...

Summary Multiplicity and diversity are predominantly related to urban contexts, narrowed to the growing issue of coexistence of ethnic groups. In highly urbanised and urbanising societies also rural areas are confronted with similar challenges. Because of the declining importance of agricultural production and the increasing consumption of rural ar...

Multiplicity and diversity are predominantly related to urban contexts. In highly urbanised and urbanising societies also rural areas seem to be confronted with similar challenges. Rural areas are becoming complex melting pots of diverse societal groups that differ in the functional use of and in the identity they connect to these areas. Because of...

Today's planning strategy for the preservation of rural areas under urban pressure in Flanders-Belgium is identical to the one used designing the first zoning plans 40 years ago: the exclusive allocation of specific functions and activities – nature, forestry, agriculture, … – to precisely defined areas. This approach is driven and contortedly main...