Located in Antwerp’s Nieuw Zuid area on the river Schelde, the residential tower breaks from traditional design with its community-oriented structure that encourages social interactions beyond just chance encounters in the lift or lobby. The building will contain a variety of housing types to encourage diversity that range from small, shared flats suitable for students to larger family homes and live-work studios. The 15,000-square-meter tower block will include 154 homes as well as a mix of shops, offices, and communal facilities.
The compact volume will be wrapped in a light-grid that defines the vertical mini-communities to give “a sense of intimate neighborliness across the stories, with the opportunity for both privacy and social interaction, as is known from traditional horizontal neighborhoods,” write the architects. Greenery will be woven into the terraces, winter gardens, and rooftop terraces to create a cooling microclimate. Shared facilities include a bicycle workshop, laundry room, community room, and a roof landscape on the fifth floor. The building is expected to achieve passive-house standard.
Images via C.F. Møller
