PLAN CANAL
- A city in a city -
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BELGIUM
Brussels
Catholic University of Leuven
Bachelor - Semester V
Nik Vandewyngaerde & Joachim Mertens
Promotor : Nathan Ooms, Ivo Vanhamme
Today the canal behaves as a huge fracture in the urban fabric of Brussels. Not just at spatial level, but likewise at a socio-economical one. Our task was to design a masterplan of 150 dwellings on a rather small plot with at least a floor to parcel ratio above 2,5. Afterwards 40 of these dwellings were further designed into detail. There rules a high level of unemployment and the highest number of immigrants within the city of Brussels. Our masterplan has a social agenda and makes room for mixed typologies of living, large ateliers and a community centre. We proposed a housing complex with a certain porosity and human scale, despite the required density. Blocks were arranged and stacked in such a way that 3 communal gardens and one public passage was created. Hereby a ‘city in a city’ appeared, where the collective environment acquired a whole new meaning.
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