Master Class 120% Brussels

120% Brussels
International Master Class
Giorgio RENZI (IT)
Tim BRANS (NL)
Proposal 5A
The Auderghem Shopping area
in Brussels consists of different
parts, each with their own function,
logic, morphology and scale: a
typical Brussels street with single
houses, a massive shopping mall,
and a mixed-use area with dwellings
and offices.
To densify the area this logic
of successive layers is taken as a
principle of composition by introducing
one additional large structure,
carefully positioned in between the
private back gardens of the single
family houses and the public space
at the site of the shopping mall. On
the one side, a compact urban façade
faces the shopping mall, while on
the other the volume is interrupted
and sequenced, reducing the
apparent scale of the building. This
treatment of the frontage allows for
an easy transition from the large
building of the shopping mall
to the multiple small parcels of the
Brussels fabric.
The structure is developed out
of a multiplied double tube structure,
creating a series of interconnected
open spaces. According to their
positioning in relation to the surroundings
and the buildings they
might be facing, those open spaces
offer different levels of privacy,
from the intimate courtyard to
the pocket public park. This articulation
of the open space makes the
transition from object to territory:
the large, strict, almost graphic
structure creates ever-different
interactions with the surroundings,
adapting to a varied context,
and defining it on smaller scale.
Density: 177.3 dwellings/ha
Building Height 2–8 floors
Ground floor: shopping mall/housing