canal zone: city docks green light

In great part as a result of the real estate market reacting to the city’s middle-income housing shortage, the canal zone in Brussels has been the object of several recent urban regeneration projects spreading from Anderlecht to Vilvoorde. City Docks for example is the first built entity of a larger–scale Masterplan developped hand-in-hand by client Atenor and planning authorities, covering 2,5 hectares alongside the poplar-lined western stretch of the canal. It includes 93 new homes, but also offices, a nursing home, and retail space. Massing is dense, but design has nonetheless strived to maximise sun penetration and preserve intimacy. Most importantly, efforts have concentrated on the qualification of unbuilt space : anything to help future inhabitants forget that for the moment they are really in the middle of nowhere…