Description

This free-standing high-rise slab of 14 storeys is located in Evere, on the northern outskirts of Brussels. Built for the social-housing company Ieder Zijn Huis (A Home for Everyone), it is one of the housing buildings that best represents the modernist ideals adopted in the post-war period.

The ground floor consists of pilotis, clearing the level for public purposes. Using a concrete structure and prefabricated elements for the façades, Willy Van der Meeren designed a very high (41 m high) and slender building (9 m wide). Every other floor, the circulation space is treated as a genuine public space throughout the building. It is very wide (more than 2 m) and features the same 30 cm by 30 cm concrete tiles as a standard Brussels sidewalk.

The typical plan has a circulation gallery with three types of apartments: single-floor apartments and duplexes leading alternately to the floor above or the floor below. For each apartment type, the structure allows flexible arrangements with movable partitions and furniture. Due to the typological scheme, the stairwell consists of elegant three-storey-high landings where the entire height of the building is visible. Moreover, generous collective amenities are included in the project, such as common spaces on the ground floor, a theatre, a mortuary, a laundry room, an atelier, and a rooftop terrace. The façades of the building are made of prefabricated-concrete elements.

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