L28

The gesture B-Architects make with L28 originates in the various caesurae that define the site: from the broad railway bed, through the industrial buildings and the landscape site of Tour & Taxis in the vicinity, to the North District on the horizon.

The architects have made L28 into an autonomous, largely freestanding monolith, clad in a uniform skin transected by openings, which as a result of its disposition and volumetry installs a new order in its context.

The design by B-Architects stands in a highly visible position, which in its turn offers a spectacular panoramic view of the north-west of Brussels. Yet this spot is currently in a sort of limbo. It lies in Molenbeek Maritiem, widely reputed to be a problem district, but also right next to Tour & Taxis, a site which has been promoted as a new focal point in Brussels for years, albeit somewhat prematurely. Because of its design, the building at first sight appears to side with the lofts scattered all over the district, awaiting a better future behind their highly secured garage doors, as a not especially original variant on a familiar concept in the more expensive segment of the housing market.

But this building is of a different nature. The client is the local authority of Molenbeek. The programme includes a crèche, eight dwellings with from one to four bedrooms, a multipurpose space for the neighbourhood, and a room for the caretaker who is responsible for the small park and playground next to the building. The volume is compact because the dwellings are passive.

This text is based on an article by Maarten Delbeke, published in Architecture Review Flanders N°10. Radical Commonplaces. European Architectures from Flanders.