Sociale woningen

Instead of concentrating the four homes within a single volume, RAUM and Marjan Michels designed three small-scale detached buildings. The buildings are at right angles to the street and similar in scale to the other houses. Two outdoor rooms are thus formed between the new buildings. The first is designed as a communal garden, the second as a play-street flanked by an in-built carport. The architecture is inconspicuous: red brick façades, red roof tiles and standard window details. All of the energy lies in the design of the volumes and the layout of the outdoor space. None of the buildings are rectangular in plan and each gable is angled differently. The three buildings are contrasting, but similar. By tapering the play-street towards the area at the back, it feels as though it is linked to the street. And by closing off the in-between garden from the street, it becomes more intimate.

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