A permanent home for 30 people, De Lork is organized in small communities. Between the privacy of one’s own room and the communal living and dining area, inhabitants are provided with additional spaces for casual socializing: a small garden, a terrace and the circulation spaces, designed to be perceived and to function as proper rooms.

On every floor, all private rooms have been placed at the front so as to provide inhabitants with glimpses of street life. Alternating between convex and concave parts, the street façade maximizes the glazed surface and viewing angles from the rooms and integrates the mass of the building into the small and dense terraced houses adjacent to the plot.

The back of the building bears a peculiarity: it is the fourth (and missing) wing of a cloister garden. A continuous, monumental and largely translucent brick façade covers the back and side of the building. It provides the necessary privacy for the cloister and is a generous source of light for the circulation and living spaces: modest but rich in experiences, the building inverts expectations on all levels.

• Location

  Brussels, Belgium

• Client

  VZW De Lork

• Competition

  2005

• Completion

  2016

• 51N4E project team

  Johan Anrys, Freek Persyn, Peter Swinnen, Aline Neirynck, Kelly Hendriks, Sotiria Kornaropoulou, Jan Opdekamp, Tom Baelus, Bob De Wispelaere, Karel Verstraeten, Joram Van den Brande, Emmanuel Debroise, Maddalena Treccani

• 51N4E involvement

  Full Process

• Structural engineer

  BSTK

• Technical engineer

  BSTK

• EPB

  BALT engineering

• Construction costs

  3.100.000 €

• Programme

  30 studios for people with mental disability

• Built surface

  1.975 m²

• Photography

  Filip Dujardin, Paul Steinbruck

• Image credits

  51N4E, Sannah Belzer