A masterplan for Moengo's public spaces

After almost a century the bauxite industry has left the town of Moengo, located in the eastern part of Suriname, permanently behind and now the city is trying to recover after having fallen into decline, mainly due to the lasting effects of the Interior War (1986-1992). The city needs to reinvent itself, taking the qualities and opportunities it already has and offers as a starting point. From this point of view in this thesis an analysis was made of the background and current situation of the city and its inhabitants, resulting in a design plan for the ground plane of the city that should stimulate further spatial and social development. The focus is on the open and public space, which is based on the observation that there is a lot of unused and barrier-forming in-between space between the various residential areas. By applying various spatial interventions, the residential areas are more logically interconnected, leading to a complete urban area. Furthermore, attention has been given to how the former ‘closed’ concession can reveal itself more to the surrounding villages and landscape, in particular towards Wonoredjo, the adjacent village community which is in fact part of the urban area. From the beginning, the inhabitants of Moengo where involved in this research project in order to create a co-productive final result and proposal. Therewith, the research is part of the interdisciplinary approach of the Plan4Cure-project, which was conducted in cooperation between the University of Antwerp and the Anton de Kom University of Suriname, with the aim of revitalising urban areas in Suriname through the use of cultural heritage as a motive for sustainable development.