Reconversie Drukkerij

In ‘Drukkerij’, the conversion of a former printing office, Collectief Noord architects took up the challenge of increasing the density of an urban space within a street block by clearing it out. They did this by shaping the place using three shallow buildings that stand up against the existing rear extensions of the street block. With this threefold subdivision, the scale of the project is reduced to a more intimate composition. The irregularity of the site is not rejected, but embraced. This brings dynamism to the communal enclosed garden via a series of perspectives that look as if they have always been there. Communal facilities, such as bicycle racks, are located alongside the entrance. The buildings are oriented entirely towards the inner garden. The main point here was the reconciliation of high-quality collectivity and sufficient privacy. The living rooms are found on the first floor and offer a broad view of the garden. This avoids appropriation by means of patios, hedges, personal garden furniture and even storage. Bedrooms, the bathroom and the firm’s workspaces are downstairs, half sunken in the ground so as to limit the height of the whole building. Daylight enters the staircases, set against the blank rear wall, from above. In this way, a dense housing ensemble combines the closed nature of a green town garden with open views, light and air.

Author: Caroline Voet. This text has been published in the Architecture Review Flanders N°11. Embedded Architecture.