Doel, a ghost town in the shadow of Antwerp’s port
Believe it or not, the town of Doel, located alongside the Scheldt river, only about 30 km away from the city of Antwerp, once counted almost 900 inhabitants living in its streets. Now they are barely 20…
The story of the city goes back to 17th century, where it is stated that the town started to develop and reclaim inhabitants that would live peacefully and in harmony with the beautiful landscape that surrounds this curious location. It is also the home place of Peter Paul Rubens’ family, so it is clear that a lot of the buildings there have an immense historical value.
But at the 20th century, around 1970, Antwerp started growing in various aspects, economically, socially and in the amount of inhabitants. And nearby, Doel, a nuclear plant was installed. This meant that the port of the city had to grow for attending the increasing demands to face, in order to make new deals. Antwerp ass already the second largest port in Europe, only behind the Rotterdam port.
But this fact didn’t stop the striving of the Flemish government to completely demolish the city of Doel. The intention was to flood the town in order to have more space for cargo containers and to be able to receive even bigger international container ships. Basically economic reasons, that were not in any way as important as the lives of hundreds of people who lived there.
Doel’s population in action
For obvious reasons, the people of Doel fought back and managed to preserve their houses and stay in the city during the government attempts in the 1990’s. But unfortunately for the city, a lot of the inhabitants accepted a ‘voluntary pay out’ as a matter of economic compensation from the government. The few ones who stayed have been offered money to leave their properties on numerous occasions.
The situation now is that there is a group of people which is called ‘Doel 2020’, formed by the inhabitants that are still there and lead by Jan Creve, the author of the book that tells the story of the fight between the city and the government. It also explains how both the city and the Antwerp port can coexist without having to demolish the town.
One of the ways of creating value for the town and attracting people was to make it a reference in street art, as you can see right now if you visit it. The combination of art and abandoned sites creates a special atmosphere that makes people want to go there. So in fact there is a really good opportunity for the city to make profit in the artistic sense, where art studios can be set up, and also restaurants and different shops that could make the town habitable again. Which is actually the main goal of the Doel 2020 campaign.
THE FUTURE FOR DOEL
Despite the initiatives taken by the people of Doel, the future is far from looking bright. And the most certain thing is that this city will only live on in photographs and in the minds of the people who once had the opportunity to visit it. And it looks like this because the impact made by the street artists who have left their footprint on the town, added to the list of proposals to reconvert the city by the Doel 2020 group, have not convinced the Flemish government to turn back the decision of demolishing the city.
One last hope for the city is translated by Joris Van Reusel (KU Leuven architechture teacher), explaining about the “Plan Doelland” which consists in a project presented to his students to work on: “the intention to further investigate the viability of Doel. KU Leuven is already presenting a “vision plan”. It is based on years of ‘design research’ and numerous conversations with residents and experts from various disciplines.
“Doel can gradually grow back and recover from years of destruction. Just in the damage suffered, the Doelland Plan sees potential and opportunities: a village with a lot of greenery and open space”
‘This approach requires courage and openness, and a willingness to invest in research, process supervision, design quality and dialogue with many people and groups from the local community. Also non-traditional village actors such as tourists, farmers and bussinesses have to participate.”
“This idea and some 40 other ideas were presented in a very visual and spatial way during the public presentation of Plan Doelland on Thursday 10 January 2019. It opens up a view of a difficult and complex social issue, and offers constructive, architectural answers to it.”
Visiting Doel
I decided to go and visit Doel by myself on the 20th of October. You can certainly breathe a post-apocalyptic atmosphere there, mixed with a sense of mystery and sadness for the locals that are still living there, and also see the rests of hundreds of lives that have been forced to abandon what they once called home. In fact now there are ‘INHABITED’ signs on the houses where people still live.
I realized walking around the city, looking through some broken windows that there were people inside some buildings. Because of that there is from time to time a police patrol making sure that everything is how it should be. And that is because some people tend to go inside houses to film and share through internet and even sometimes vandalize parts of the house or steal things as a souvenir.
Luckily, I had the chance to speak with two locals: the adult couple Bjorn Vanenstein and Louise Heylen: “We remember a beautiful past in Doel with people in the streets and open shops and bussinesses. But now times here are hard and we have been a long time fighting, a lot of years of trying to keep our homes and finding ways to negotiate with the government”
“With the passing of time, we try to gain a bit of hope but sadly the circumstances don’t allow us to do so. We are usually reminded by the government that the chances of the port being extended are increasing, as they state that is a must for the growth of the port’s economy”
