OFFICE 250

The project for the Flora Housing Complex is both urban and architectural. A site left vacant after the demolition of flower-auction halls is to be transformed into a green neighbourhood, with a focus on accessibility and proximity to healthcare facilities. OFFICE designed the master plan for the site, which is located on the edge of nineteenth-century urban fabric, next to a large recreational park and a hospital, but also the ring road that encircles Aalst. The master plan proposes an open configuration of two building types, the Urban Villa and the Strip, arranged in two parallel rows. The buildings themselves are by four different architects. OFFICE have designed an Urban Villa and a Strip of three lower identical buildings. Both have a similar structure, with a one-storey plinth topped by housing. The plinths accommodate entrances to the housing, with bike storage and technical spaces, as well as commercial spaces and services related to care such as a pharmacy, GP practice and day-care centre. The Strip consists of a row of six two-storey maisonettes with access to a garden above the plinth. The larger Urban Villa has five floors above the roof garden, each with six apartments arranged around the central core of its square plan. The facades are defined by a regular grid of identical openings, but while the plinths are clad in white tiles, the volumes on top are rendered.