Forgotten chapter in early 20th-century European planning history, offering a fresh perspective on urbanism, grounded in a theory of urbanization 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 (1907-1939). Against prevailing trends, Antwerp’s urban expansion was not the product of rational 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, sociocultural, political and ecological needs – 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 is presented as a generative, redistributive, reproductive, and situated worlding practice – offering a fresh perspective on urbanism that resonates in our current age of (planetary) urbanization. '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 (1907-1939). Against prevailing trends, Antwerp’s urban expansion was not the product of rational 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, sociocultural, political and ecological needs – 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' is presented as a generative, redistributive, reproductive, and situated worlding practice – offering a fresh perspective on urbanism that resonates in our current age of (planetary) urbanization. Foreword Acknowledgements Introduction. Urbanization in Theory, History, and Practice The Art of Urbanization in theory: On urban questions and reproduction Contemporary critique of urbanization Grounding urbanism in a theory of urbanization Aspects of the Art of Urbanization in international urbanism discourse The Art of Urbanization in history: Requalifying the legacy of Belgian planning Pragmatic urbanisms for the open-ended agglomeration Requalifying the historical significance of Belgian planning The Art of Urbanization in practice: The study of reason and intent The SCAA as a social platform for urbanization Specific situation—productive universal? Chapter 1. The Question of Metropolitan Governance: Confederal municipalism, provincial policy entrepreneurship, and programmatic urbanization Governing unbounded urbanization The impossibility of pure and plain annexation Intermunicipal cooperation under provincial supervision Municipal confederalism Three forms of municipalism for three regimes of urbanization Mythical municipalism and urbanism Managerial municipalism and cheap urbanization Confederal municipalism and programmatic urbanization Provisional provinces The SCAA, policy entrepreneurship, and the relative ideal Urbanization as the work of men The relative ideal Policy-entrepreneurship in-between realpolitik and ideology Grounding urban governance in the process of urbanization Chapter 2. The Question of Urban Ways: The urbanization of technology and ecological infrastructures The urbanization of technology Sanitary amenities as a techno-natural prerequisite for urbanization Les ‘Hommes de l’égout’ Technology deduplicating nature The necessity of incremental implementation Toward a metropolitan grid: The modern road as urban project Les ‘Hommes de la route’ Building a one-mile metropolitan grid, a work for the long haul An urban profile for the modern road The urbanization of railway infrastructures From ambitious plans to local porosity Radically careful infrastructures for an urban ecology? Chapter 3. The Question of Collective Consumption: Generative urbanization and spatial differentiation securing the right to the city Generative urbanization rather than parasitic urbanization Parasitic urbanization and uneven development Generative urbanization and spatial differentiation The SCAA’s approach to generative urbanization Parks and squares as a public backbone for continued accumulation Saving public parks from private subdivision Weaving parks into the urban fabric Urban parks and the right to the city Squares as communal spaces or civic centralities Positive externality and continued accumulation Sports facilities for a new urban imagination Polo and golf clubs: Playgrounds for Antwerp’s high society Antwerp’s major stadiums: Sports for the common man A sports dome and aviation plains for a new metropolitanism Private capital stimulating public welfare? The urbanization of public transport Vicinal railways penetrating the historical city Urban trams breaking out of the historical city Practicing generative urbanization Chapter 4. The Housing Question: Real estate agency and the urbanization of taxes on urban rent The consolidation of real estate agency Real estate and urbanization The professionalization of real estate agency An urban revolution avant la lettre Urbanizing the agglomeration as a prerequisite for the urbanization of capital The rise of an autonomous secondary circuit of capital Providing a permanent flux of ‘urbanizable land’ A pertinent critique of capitalist urbanization An urbanistic turn: Redistributing class-monopoly rent Urban rent in Belgian politics Uniform tax regulations for the agglomeration? The municipalization of land Negotiating urban fortunes A socially fair redistribution of urban fortunes A job well done, but what if? Chapter 5. The Question of Aesthetics: Spatial agency and L’esthétique intégrale for an architecture of urbanization Subordination and subsistence of aesthetics in an urbanizing world The SCAA’s loose ideas and efforts The persistence of the aesthetic question International master-urbanists and the critique of liberal irony A local plea for a worldly contingency The critique of the master urbanist as a liberal ironist Situated architects and spatial agency The ‘young watchmen’ and the practice of architecture in an age of urbanization Four forms of agency for a concrete utopia The SCAA’s enabling role L’Esthétique intégrale for an architecture of urbanization Chapter 6. The Sociocultural Question: Urbanization as the work of city-amateurs Urbanization as a sociocultural practice Urbanization and public opinion Amateur readings of urbanization Reciting and exhibiting urbanization: The SCAA in search of an audience Exploring communication channels The 1910 exhibition: Publicity campaign for the urban elites The 1913 event: Exhibition at a tipping point The 1932 Exhibition: Immersing large crowds within the relative ideal Experiencing and exploring urbanization: Civic festivities and regional tourism The 1920 Olympics and the 1930 World Fair Les Amis des Parcs d’Anvers and Les Environs d’Anvers Amateurism as precondition for urbanization as a sociocultural practice Post Scriptum. Final reflections on the Art of Urbanization The Art of Urbanization: Bridging urban theory and urban history? The Art of Urbanization: Belgian practice for a different kind of planning history? The Art of Urbanization: Grounding a notion of urbanism in urban theory? Appendix. List of SCAA Meeting Minutes Notes List of Abbreviations Bibliography Illustration Credits Index