OFFICE 283

The design of these two corner volumes, part of a new residential building block in the Antwerp ‘Slaughterhouse’ district, is deliberately simple in design. It seeks to endorse high-quality collective housing by focusing strongly on urban added value and the distinctive character of a park residence. The building not only provides added value to its immediate surroundings, it also aims to serve as an example for the future building volumes of the entire master plan. Although three separate architectural firms were selected to design the entire block (OFFICE, Robbrecht & Daem and De Smet-Vermeulen), this first building block of the master plan strives for architectural coherence. The identities of the various building volumes, distinctly separate, yet harmonious in materiality, are crowned by a balanced roof landscape that refers to the existing urban fabric and its industrial past. Each of the two buildings consists of a flat roof on the short side and a pitched roof on the long side of the volume.