De Nieuwe Dokken, a multifunctional district in Ghent’s old harbour, is currently being completely refurbished. The city’s urban development agency Sogent is going all out for innovation: renewable energy, green and slow mobility, reduced water usage, and waste management. It is also taking a district-wide approach to sustainability. ‘Integrating technical innovations in architecture is relatively easy, but designing affordable dwellings and new forms of collectivity is the true innovation’, according to the architects of BLAF and DENC!-STUDIO.

‘Live by the water. Bathe in the light.’ This is the slogan which the project developer is using to attract buyers for the new apartments on the Schipperskaai in Ghent’s old docks. Since last year, the Faar tower designed by Stéphane Beel architects and the Dek project by BLAF architecten have been completed and are occupied. But that is only the beginning of the large-scale development of this new, sustainable district, with no fewer than 400 new apartments and houses, shops and offices, a crèche, a primary school and a local sports hall on the northern dock.