The studio asked for a conceptual design for a big housing building in Brussels. We chose to design 200 houses, suited for 200 families. And so, the question posed itself: what is a house? How does it differ from an appartement? From a studio? We came up with an answer in three parts:
- A house needs its own front door.
- Living spaces need to be separated from the sleeping area.
- A house needs a garden.
The three conditions needed to be met in every unit.

We stacked front doors in vertical structural elements, which remained publicly accessible.
Almost all units are duplexes or triplexes, here the living and sleeping spaces are separated by a staircase.

But how do we stack gardens? The first five units received cascading terraces. At a certain point, above the 15 meter-line, the garden encloses itself in the building and becomes an internal three-storey high garden that provides monumentality to the massive façade. The building is topped with a cornice of patio houses with an internal garden, which serve also to separate sleeping and living spaces of the unit.
The result is a Big Building, in which attention to detail and rhythm results in a layered whole.

Masterstudio Big Buildings Brussels
200 houses for 200 families in Brussels
Collaboration with Julie Helewaut
mentors: Tijl Vanmeirhaeghe en David Schmitz