Witte Vrouwen
The project site is part of a large plot of land which has lain empty for years. Development proposals have been met with opposition from neighbouring residents, until a masterplan with lower density was developed by a team around landscape architect Bas Smets. Their proposal preserves a substantial amount of open space, with terraced allotments and rows of trees. This green infrastructure branches out into the new housing development, opening up a range of public and semi-public spaces.
For the residential component the masterplan issues detailed prescriptions regarding building programme, density and materials. POLO Labs takes these parameters as a starting point to develop various clusters of residential typologies, each with their own distinct identity. Different types of collective space are provided within and between buildings, offering varying degrees of privacy across the site.
City Forest / Forest City
The site lies at the crossroads of several urban ensembles which are very different in character. There are some little-loved “urban villas”—small free-standing blocks of flats—to the north, with a church and the town centre beyond. A social housing neighbourhood from the 1940’s is located west of the site while we find an upscale villa development to the east. Southwards the green expanse of the Sonian Forest looms.
Topography is a determining factor in the masterplan design. Public access to the development is situated at its lowest point in the northwestern corner, where it connects to the existing street network. From here a main circulation axis slopes up to the forest at the opposing end, bisecting the project site and establishing a green spine around which the residential clusters are organised. Rather than a simple street this is a low-traffic collective space which integrates circulation for pedestrians and cyclists. Cars are diverted to a central car park, while bicycle parkings are provided at every building cluster. The spine provides access to the different buildings and to the interstitial public spaces, from which adjacent zones can be reached: the existing social housing to the west, the collective green space to the east.
Along the axis we find two public facilities: a crèche near the entrance and a community centre halfway along the axis. With their angular geometry and timber cladding they stand out from the orthogonal, brick-faced residential buildings. The community centre is set back, making way for a green square which links to the neighbouring allotment complex.
Residential blocks create gradients of privacy
Our design offers four distinct residential environments, where buildings are clustered around or alongside a specific (semi-)public space. As the masterplan largely determines their location and density, we focus on creating distinct spatial qualities for each of them, developing a specific relationship with the ground through gardens or external stairs.
Lot 1 contains urban villas, establishing a rapport with the existing buildings across the street. Here the highest block of the whole development marks the entrance to the site and the start of the green axis. It accommodates units for disabled people while the other urban villa offers homes suited to intergenerational living. A row of stacked residential units with outdoor staircases completes lot 1—a typology we encounter again in lot 3.
Across the axis in lot 2 we find a two-storey slab with apartments for the elderly. They are accessed via generous external wooden decks, connected by a lift and external stairs.
Lot 3 sees six buildings grouped around an open space, on top of a half-sunken parking-plinth. They all have similar layouts: single-floor apartments on the first two floors and duplex units on the two upper floors. Duplexes are partially set back, creating terraces and a building profile which fits inside the statutory building envelope. External staircases form a sculptural addition, stepping down and connecting the building volume back to the landscape. Central patios and windows inject daylight into the car park, ensuring other functions can be accommodated in future.
Lots 4, 6 and 7 feature terraced houses, with only slight dimensional variations distinguishing the houses for public housing from those for middle-income families. All houses have the same width, allowing a high degree of standardisation for the structural system using sustainable cross-laminated timber. Still this standardisation allows variation: terraced houses feature 2 or 3 floors, with the number of bedrooms ranging from 3 to 5. Front gardens negotiate between the public realm of the central axis and the privacy of home interiors. At the back, private gardens open up to the lush greenery beyond.
