broes

The Art of Urbanization reexamines a forgotten tradition in Belgian and European planning history, reconstructed through a longitudinal analysis of the Study Committee of the Antwerp Agglomeration. Unlike the dominant pursuit of rational planning models, Antwerp’s urban expansion was not the product of master planning, but evolved gradually through collective and pragmatic responses to emerging urban questions.

Drawing on a wide range of historical sources and richly illustrated, the book reconstructs how numerous sub-plans - each addressing economic, socio-cultural, political and ecological needs - gradually coalesced into the incremental components of a reasoned and dynamic urban agglomeration.

As it engages with classical concepts in urban theory and global urban history, The Art of Urbanization presents a generative, redistributive, reproductive, and situated worlding practice - offering a fresh perspective on urbanism that resonates in our current age of planetary urbanization.

Tom Broes is a post-doctoral research fellow and teaching assistant at the department of architecture and urban planning at Ghent University.