Description

This apartment building is set on a large 45 m by 80 m plot of land. It is built perpendicular to the street, parallel to an access alleyway and a low-walled terraced garden. The back of the plot is occupied by a small garage building. The main building is U-shaped, allowing a rear service courtyard accessible from the street via a carriageway. The building is accessed through three entrances on the alleyway. Each hall, flanked by a caretaker’s lodge, leads to a stairwell with two lifts.

The standard floor features seven apartments, ranging from one to three bedrooms. They are organised around a large hall, parallel to the façade, serving the living rooms towards the garden and the sleeping rooms towards the courtyard. The central part of the building is three levels higher, with one apartment per floor. Various communal facilities are provided in the building such as a common kitchen and restaurant, servants’ rooms, meeting room, laundry room, and solarium. The concrete framework of the building is covered with black terrazzo on the first two levels and a light-coloured render on the upper floors, enhanced by elements of reconstituted stone, wrought iron, and wooden frames. The façades are punctuated by trapezoidal oriels supported by a wide cornice on the first floor. They are topped by a continuous balcony, extended by a veranda on the street side.

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