Description

This project is located on the northern corner of a triangular block in Schaerbeek. The five-storey building is integrated into a streetscape of similar height. Its acute triangular plot is small: 10 m long to the east and 12 m to the west. The entrance to the building is on this latter side. The hallway serves a bicycle store and a waste room, as well as the communal staircase, which is located against the party wall. The staircase leads down to a level of underground cellars where utility meters and individual storage spaces are located. It also leads up, serving three interlocking duplex apartments on five floors. Each duplex presents a main floor with the living areas and a bedroom, followed by one or two bedrooms on the floor above or below. In this way, the living rooms take advantage of the full depth of the plot and have a double orientation to the east and north or west, depending on the apartment.

The building is finished with a flat roof. The façades are made of white and green glazed bricks with a small cross pattern, which clad a prefabricated-concrete plinth. All the window openings are square-shaped and fitted with wooden frames and sashes.

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Originally published in: Gérald Ledent, Alessandro Porotto, Brussels Housing. Atlas of Residential Building Types, Birkhäuser, 2023.