For decades, industrial estates were built according to the same logic: detached single-storey buildings surrounded by wide service roads and car parks. This is no longer acceptable, especially in water-sensitive areas. A reorganisation is urgently needed, with more compact and, where possible, stacked buildings and more unpaved space. The new offices of DDS and Verko on the Eegene industrial estate in Appels, Dendermonde, are a good example of this.

In Appels, the Scheldt makes a large U-bend where the straightened Dender between Appels and Dendermonde joins the Scheldt. This bend is home to a beautiful, marshy landscape. Over time, people have sustainably shaped the fertile soil along the rivers through intensive irrigation, modifications to the riverbed and dykes. The towpath on the dyke along the banks of the Scheldt offers a panoramic view of this landscape. Yet you notice little of this beauty when you drive through Appels on the N416. The ribbon development, consisting mainly of houses at first and then retail outlets, garages and an industrial estate in Eegene, obscures the view of that landscape. This too is man-made, but it is not sustainable, especially now that the Dender region is proving increasingly vulnerable to flooding. This makes the excessive paving around all these buildings an eyesore.