The project concerns the renovation of an existing villa and the construction of a residence and day center for people with multiple disabilities. Developed in the context of a lack of housing for disabled people in the Brussels Region (and in Belgium in general), the project rethinks care spaces as inclusive places and integrated in our society.

This reflects in the design of a house for everyone, accessible and private at the same time. The site is envisioned as a new habitat, with different ways of nesting, growing from a garden to a piece of forest, which allows for protection. Different degrees of intimacy are set through a series of spaces that together shape the living environment. The open character of the place is not about visibility and transparency, but rather about how a sense of security and benevolence is established to meet in the quiet. Architecture finds in this sense its role in the definition of a framework for a light and joyful atmosphere..

The project site is located in Uccle, 7 km from Brussels city center. It slopes down from south to north and is densely vegetated. By virtue of its geographical location, the project site offers both proximity to urban and outdoor activities connected to nature, more particularly with the Forêt de Soignes. Nevertheless, the surrounding residential area in which it is located offers little interaction between the inhabitants of the same neighborhood. As the plot of land is located in the center of a 600m long block, the project proposes to create a hidden pedestrian passageway to initiate the creation of a secondary transversal network at the scale of the district. The objective here is twofold: to offer better proximity between the inhabitants of the neighbors, but above all to create a place of passage on the plot, creating a modest opportunity to make Tous Ensemble a place of life, for meeting and exchange between the residents and inhabitants of the neighborhood. The design of the landscape contributes to define an open and inviting environment, where residents feel safe and in contact with nature.

• Location

  Brussels, Belgium

• Client

  Tous Ensemble asbl

• Construction

• 51N4E project team

  Johan Anrys, Freek Persyn, Pu Hsien Chan, Benoit Lanon, Maxime Ledroupéet, Wim Menten, Aline Neirynck, Sebastien Roy

• 51N4E involvement

  Full Process

• Landscape

  Plant en Houtgoed

• Structural engineer

  JZH

• Technical engineer

  JZH

• Acoustical engineer

  DE FONSECA

• Programme

  Care and day center for people with multiple disabilities

• Built surface

  1800 m²

• Image credits

  51N4E

• Photography credits

  (9/18) Severin Malaud