City Dox

The project shown here is architectesassoc+’s last-ditch bid for significant content on a site developed within a financial frame of reference focusing more on return than on input. But the site is baffling and therefore the challenge stimulating: an empty plot lost in the middle of nowhere alongside this western stretch of Brussels’ canal zone. Furthermore CITY DOX is an necessary exercise in mixity, offering not just housing (93 flats) but also ultra-modular workspace floating atop an uninterrupted semi-industrial ground floor. Accordingly density and synergy are critical issues here, leading to attentively assembled volumes conglomerating to form a coherent city block, itself just one of the dozen or so constituting this large-scale soon-to-come neighborhood. So creating identity from scratch is a lesson here as critical as the stacking performance, inducing thoughts on how to nurture endorsement into existence through the design proposed.

Massing along the main boulevard is slightly set back for acoustic reasons with housing turned towards the quieter and more verdant canal-side. Silhouettes are simple, sometimes askew in order to widen perspectives, preserve intimacy, or get more sunshine in. A highly flexible typical floorplan characterizes workspace, allowing modular use and straightforward sub-divisions. Because of security issues and the superpositions mentioned above, physical connections between functions is limited, leading to a scheme pushing connections with surroundings as much as permitted instead. Consequently for example, floor-to-ceiling windows and full-width terraces flourish throughout the residential units. Indeed, the bucolic poplar-lined canal way off in the yonder is CITY DOX’s best asset and hence key to the sense of communal belonging targeted : the shared views of this peaceful and much appreciated landscape federates all present, whatever the occupation.