URBAN TISSUE

This urban densification strategy in Sint-Lambrechts-Herk, Belgium, features 20 residential co-housing units. Additionally various collective and commercial functions were included in order to create added value for the residents of the community as wel as for the entire neighborhood. Especially the existing buildings on this triangular building block in 

Sint-Lambrechts-Herk and the former town hall played an important role during the design process. This project is concentrated along the main road and is arranged according to a grid around collective courtyards with several underpasses between the interconnected units. In the back, a large collective park remains open to the neighborhood.

 

This project will be inserted in between the existing buildings and will thus, together with the park, offer added value for the wider environment in Sint-Lambrechts-Herk. The added volumes could in fact serve as a commercial function, an extension or a kangaroo residence for the existing houses. The unused back gardens of the commercial functions along the main road are united in order to form collective courtyards that generate encounters between the (neighborhood) residents. The concrete framework is placed on a grid of 6 by 6 m and therefore allow great flexibility. The building is constructed entirely of timber-frame panels with standard dimensions. The cantilever of the roof softens the transition from public to private and provides overall coherence. Furthermore, the clustering of different living units on a grid, can easily be adapted or expanded.