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Guided trip / tour

Antwerp’s Left Bank : From modernist apartment buildings to a close-knit city district​

Expeditie de Stad organizes a guided walking or biking tour on Antwerp's Left Bank. The guides show you around in this green, open, slightly chaotic but suprising part of Antwerp and talk about the uniqueness of Antwerp's Left Bank in the past, present and future.

source: expeditiedestad.be

During the period between the two World Wars several international design competitions were organised for the development of Antwerp’s Left Bank, followed by the implementation of several prestigious projects.

The urban expansion of the fifties is characterised by high-rise buildings along major thoroughfares, a modernist approach which has left its mark on this neighbourhood even today.

For many of the city’s inhabitants, the Antwerp Linkeroever is unknown territory. It’s a part of the city, but ‘across the river’.

Over the past few years Antwerp’s Left Bank has undergone a thorough facelift:

  • A new car-free traffic artery has been built in the Europapark estate with its many apartment buildings.
  • A number of residential, care, culture, education and child-care facilities have been concentrated around this artery. The InterGenerational Project LinkerOever (IGLO) will foster a better social coherence in this neighbourhood.
  • The Regatta real estate project near Galgenweel lake, the biggest sailing lake in Flanders, consists of 450 dwellings, 1,100 apartments, offices and shops. Along the lake a 12-hectare residential park will be built, designed by the Italian architects Secchi & Vigano.
  • Sint-Annabos (96 hectares of forest) is being connected with Middenvijver (30 hectares of open space) and Burchtse Weel. These three areas form a green ring around the west of the city. A number of interventions are designed to better integrate these contiguous spaces into one large nature area, with space for sport and recreation.
  • In 2016, Antwerp City Architect Christian Rapp launched an international ideas competition with the intention of enabling a thorough familiarization with an area that could be the right place for a new kind of urbanity.
cover image Linkeroever. Across the River

The Flanders Architecture Institute published the book Linkeroever. Across the River. It tells the story of Linkeroever, the Left Bank of Antwerp, and shows the results of the idea competition that started the debate on the importance of this part of the city for the whole of Antwerp.

More information & order

The guides of Expeditie De Stad show you around in this green, open, slightly chaotic but suprising part of Antwerp and talk about the uniqueness of Antwerp's Left Bank in the past, present and future. This can be done walking or by bike.

More information & booking

Practical

  • MEETING POINT:

    Entrance pedestrian's tunnel at Left Bank (Frederik Van Eedenplein)

  • END:

    IGLO

  • TOUR ON FOOT:

    Maximum 20 persons per guide

  • BIKE TOUR:

    Maximum 15 participants per guide

  • PRICE:

    € 150 for 2 1/2 hours, € 120 for 2 hours

  • BOOK A GUIDE:

    www.expeditiedestad.be