ledeberg - Car park Ledeberg Ghent

In early June 2022, the parking tower in Ledeberg, the design of which was entrusted to Havana and L.U.S.T. architects, Bollinger + Grohmann (stability), VK engineering (techniques) in 2014 via the Open Call, was inaugurated.  The building is part of the renewed mobility concept for the city of Ghent.

The parking building in Ledeberg next to the Ghent-South flyover is a Park&Ride facility that provides space for 500 cars, thus making an important contribution to the new mobility plan for the City of Ghent. In this plan, car traffic is increasingly kept out of the city centre. The main design principle is to preserve open space as much as possible. Ledeberg has a very closed urban fabric and could use every square metre of green space. The designers opted to let the ground-level open space continue into the parking building, with the ground level as the lowest parking level. Due to its pointed shape, the available plot is not ideal for optimally organising parking surfaces. Therefore, the aim was to minimise the footprint, resulting in the tree-lined plan.

Maximum legibility was sought. One wing of the boomerang is slightly sloping, the other wing flat. Seeking traffic drives up, exiting traffic down. Thereby, at ground level, the sharp corner of the site is used as an entry and exit zone, making parking in this Park&Ride fast and efficient.

The Spatial Structure Plan for Ghent and the Mobility Plan aim for the introduction of P+R facilities as one of the possible measures to stimulate the use of alternatives to the car.

The current administrative agreement provides for the creation of ‘a ring of P+R car parks’. The construction of a multi-storey car park in the area between Willem Van Guliklaan, Gaston Crommenlaan and Hundelgemsesteenweg in Ledeberg fits perfectly into this P+R strategy. This multi-storey car park had previously already been incorporated into the ‘Bellevue’ Spatial Implementation Plan and is part of the Ledeberg Urban Renewal Project.

Nor is the choice of this location at odds with clause 3.55 of the administrative agreement, in which it is laid down that an extensive P+R would be built near the motorway turn-off, in the zone between Sint-Lievenslaan and Okapistraat.

Ghent City Council would like to breathe new life into this district by means of the Ledeberg Urban Renewal Project. To this end the Mayor and Aldermen approved a physical spatial action plan on 28 August 2008. It focuses on spatial elements and is one of the three pillars of the Urban Renewal Project. Work is also being put into the economic and socio-cultural and artistic aspects.

Parking plays an important part in the physical spatial action plan. Spatially sound parking solutions have to be proposed for the following parking requirements:

- P+R facilities for commuters and visitors to the city centre and for visitors to the local shops, especially the Sunday-morning market in Ledeberg.

- additional neighbourhood parking for the small-scale residential fabric.

- short-term parking for local retailers and catering trade.

- local parking for clients of the new service providers

In practical terms, it is envisaged that these needs will be met in the following ways:

- construction of a neighbourhood car park under the B401 viaduct.

- retention of a number of short-term parking spaces at walking distance from the shops (along Hundelgemsesteenweg).

- and – the subject of this open call – the construction of a new multi-storey car park on Hundelgemsesteenweg on the site of the present neighbourhood car park next to the roundabout at Eggermontstraat, and the layout of the surrounding area.

Other functions may also be accommodated in this multi-storey car park (e.g. retail, services, conference rooms or places to eat and drink, either on the ground floor or the top floor).

The construction of a new multi-storey car park along Hundelgemsesteenweg is an important strategic project in the task of upgrading the ‘gateway formed by Botermarkt, Eggermontstraat and surroundings’: so the architecture of the new building plays a major part in defining the appearance of this renewed entry to Ledeberg and Ghent city centre.

It is essential that the building or the layout of its surroundings should be green. Ledeberg is densely built up and craves more green space: the possible loss of greenery on the site of the multi-storey car park must as far as possible be compensated by an ingenious design that makes greenery visible.

Maximum account must be taken of the City Council’s guidelines on sustainable and low-energy building, rational energy use, public greenery, lighting, etc.

At the same time, a number of guidelines laid down in the preliminary traffic study, the study of parking requirements and the MOBER transport report must be taken into account in the design.

In addition, the design must also take account of a possible future extension above the B401.

overall fee of min. 7% & max. 8%