Dogma

Amour

Amour is located at the end of a typical row of houses along Rue Waelhem in Brussels and at the corner with the new placette where the new metro station and the pedestrian bridge to Rue Voltaire will be located. Amour marks its specific spatial situation as a distinctive high point (5 floors height), following a short gap to the adjacent building on Rue Waelhem. To emphasize the importance of the new placette, the corner of the new building has been chamfered similarly to the two existing buildings on the other side of the road, at the crossing between Rue Waelhem and Rue Léopold Courouble, In this way the placette, which will be a spatial break on Rue Waelhem, is valued both by the height and the corner treatment of the new building.

Amour consists of two volumes. Along Rue Waelhem, the building is lower (3 floors height) and in direct continuity to the other row-houses along the street. Facing the placette, the building becomes a higher volume, as mentioned above. At the back, Amour is volumetrically imagined as a cascade of collective terraces, resembling the informal character of a typical Brussels row-houses’ back. And while Amour is the composition of two volumes, each establishing a relationship with the surrounding, its unitary character is underlined by the uniform plinth at the ground level, and by the use of the same generous French-window throughout the entire envelope, with the only exception of the large openings on the terraces at the back.

Two crossing walls divide the building into quarters, each of the size of one apartment. The ground floor is of increased height to enhance the lighting situation of the ground-floor apartments as well as the architectural quality of the entrance hall and common room. This also facilitates possible future transformations towards more commercial or public uses and meets future regulations on the height of the ground floor spaces in Brussels. The access spaces are reduced to a minimum to allow for a maximal number of apartments and a diverse range of communal rooms and spaces on the in- and outside. Both the number of floors (especially for the higher volume facing the placette) as well as the height of the ground-floor can be adapted in the further development of the project – the design presented shows a maximal volume and capacity.

A central staircase with a lift can conveniently be reached by the entrance hall on Rue Waelhem as well as through the garden-entrance on the placette. This connects the intermediate and private spaces, apartments and terraces, common room, and the roof-garden on top of the lower volume. While the building profits from the diverse advantages and dispositions of the site – in terms of views, sunlight, publicity and privacy –, it cultivates a simple and urban appearance. The French-windows to the street and the placette define a regular façade and allow to grow plants, which will embellish the building, and can be used as a series of small private outdoor spaces where it will be possible to place a chair and a small table during the sunny days. The collective terraces to the south are framed by metal pergolas and could be developed into lush cascades of plants or by placing sun screens, shading the outside spaces of the adjacent apartments. All terraces are accessible by the staircase and thus become potential spaces of neighborly encounter.

All apartments are grouped around the stairwell and are explicitly oriented towards the exterior. All the units face at least two sides, and despite their different planimetric position, they all share excellent orientation. The French-windows provide abundant daylight in all rooms and offer great views of the urban scenery in the north- and south-east corner apartments while the apartments in the other half of the building enjoy the street view to the north and the gardens and terraces to the south and the view towards the south of Brussels. The relation and disposition of kitchen, storage space, bathroom living- and sleeping room vary according to those qualities. While the floorplan of the corner apartments enables circling around, the north-south apartments show private spaces on the street side, a separate kitchen and more convivial spaces towards the terraces.

The building, which has a total surface above ground of 1.315,10 m² (including terraces) contains 15 apartments. There are three typologies of apartments, all with their specificities in relation to orientation and organization of space. However, they are all characterized by a large living room, one private sleeping room, one bathroom and ample storage space. The living spaces (living room and bedroom) have higher ceiling of 2,70m, showing the refined wood of the CLT slabs; the service spaces (bathroom, storage, passages) have lower ceilings, allowing the passage of installations. The apartment types B and C, on the eastern side of the building, are organized as a continuous space between the entrance hall, the living room and the bedroom, which are all connected in a circle around the service spaces. This allows the possibility to variate paths and enter or exit a room from different points, thus highly improving the perception of space by the inhabitants. The type C presents a small terrace on the corner of the building, facing the sunny southern side, while the type B extends on the cut corner towards the placette. The apartment type A crosses the western side of the building; a large living room is the main space of the house and always faces a bright southern terrace, while the bedroom, the separated bathroom and toilet, and a separated kitchen with storage extend towards the northern street side. All apartments are lit by six French-windows, with the exception of the apartments type A, which have also a tripartite wider opening towards the terraces. All French-windows become a small private open space where inhabitants can place a chair and a table during sunny days, or plants and flowers. The choice of using French-windows is justified by the programmatic definition of the project: as elderly people are sometimes more inclined to spend time at home, we strongly try to provide them with very generous openings, bright apartments, diverse orientations and views, as well as the possibility to “step outside” the French-windows to directly feel the breeze of the city.