Project: Ten Boomgaard Housing
Architects: WE-S architecten
Location: Bruges, Belgium
Area: 6,081 sf
Year: 2023
Photographs by: Nicolas da Silva Lucas
Ten Boomgaard Housing by WE-S architecten
Ten Boomgaard Housing, designed by WE-S architecten in Brugge, Belgium, consists of seven starter homes arranged around a shared inner garden. The corner plot allows for maximum daylight exposure in the collective garden by stepping down the building envelope on the north side. The project features two autonomous volumes on the south side, with sloping roofs and vertical incisions, creating terraced houses for young residents. Drawing inspiration from traditional beguinage designs, the plan arrangement and materialization incorporate a nuanced brown façade plinth and a white-washed brick upper section. The project aims to update the small-scale house typology within a communal garden setting.
The project applies 7 starter homes, grouped around a collective inner garden. The site is located on a corner plot in Bruges. The maximum building envelope steps down on the north side of the plot, in order to connect to the neighboring building, thereby maximizing daylight entering the collective garden (STEP 1).
On the south side, the building block is divided into 2 autonomous volumes that open, on the one hand, to communal parking, on the other hand, to the bicycle shed and collective garden (STEP 2).
Both volumes have sloping roofs and vertical incisions, describing 7 terraced houses for starters, young couples, and singles (STEP 3). The project attempts in various ways to update the typology of the traditional beguinage with small-scale houses, grouped around a collective garden.
Both the plan arrangement and the materialization subtly refer to the traditional design of the beguinage, using a nuanced brown façade plinth in combination with a white-washed brick on top (STEP 4).
