Collectieve sociale woningen

URA Yves Malysse and Kiki Verbeeck applies the passage as a theme in an original way for the insertion of nineteen social housing units into a residential fabric of narrow streets and workmen’s houses.

Each home is given its own entrance along the passageway that runs between Brugstraat and Zelestraat, in some cases with the addition of such formal figures as staircases, yards, terraces, gates, garden walls and patios. Above all, despite the conspicuous choice of yellow brick and an explicit design, it is the informal and slightly shabby passageway that makes the project such a fitting part of this small town, and in this sense a necessity.

This text is based on an article by Ward Verbakel, published in Flanders Architectural Review N°12: Tailored Architecture.