The activation of the whole study site of De Kaaien is achieved through three main urban strategies that operate at three scales. At an ‘Infrastructural Scale’ the project behaves as a Logistics Tigger: Currently, Flanders presents an unequal distribution of its industries that, condensed in large cores distanced from the metropolitan areas, increase the tension and inequality between capital cities and province cities. For De Kaaien we propose a gradual transition towards Industries 4.0, circularity and renewable energies. Reaching a territorial model that explodes the large industrial, logistics and energetic hubs and disperses them throughout the territory in multiple small local industries and integrated energy productions, as well as ecologically responsible. Moreover, at an ‘Environmental Scale’ the proposal act as an Ecological Distributor: The Dender river is not a mere waterway but an active distributor of ecologies and programs. The river will no longer be a differentiated and secluded element, rather, it will integrate and hybridize with the architectures, ecologies and urbanisms of the project. The Render river becomes an architectural artifact, a medium for the coordination of many sites, of many programs and events. And finally, at a ‘Social Scale’ the project is a Programmatic Activator: Tragel Zuid becomes a node from which other un-programmed spaces could be activated, appropriated and temporarily used for cultural production. These productive un-programmed spaces are urban islands for metropolitan opportunities to arise.

Time plays a significant role in the design of the project. As the whole masterplan is curated on a timeline, using a play script in which several formal and informal interventions are counterpointed through the years. Basically the script is articulated in two main acts. On the first one a series of informal Pop-Up architectural devices will activate the site, supported by protocols of appropriation of the existing architectures and followed by the insertion of ecologies in the form of vegetation, energies and soft industries. They serve as contextual testers for the future requirements of the site, before the construction of harder architectural infrastructures On a second act, more permanent architectures will be given to the programs and uses that are proved to function during the first phase. Accordingly, the natural grown of the introduced ecologies will help to construct a series of atmospherical contexts that will help to accommodate the future uses.