OFFICE 285

The housing complex is made of two identical towers on either side of a square. Located next to the main railway station in Ghent, it forms part of a larger redevelopment and had a predefined base: the foundations and underground parking had already been built. The project thus adapted to the existing structural grid, with the footprint of the two slightly shifted towers matching the footprint of the square. The towers are conceived as cast-in-place concrete shelves carrying isolated wooden boxes of housing units. The apartments, which are entirely glazed towards the outside, with floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors, are detached from the building perimeter to make continuous balconies. This offset also makes the silhouette of the towers appear more slender. Floor plans vary, with four, six or eight housing units per floor, each with a small winter garden. The central core has a generous bike storage and elevator, so the residents can bring their bicycles to their apartment floor rather than leave them downstairs. Besides housing, the programme includes two commercial spaces on the ground floor. A gable-roof pavilion next to the towers encloses a bar and a restaurant and mediates the 4m height difference between the square and the railway, performing as a street facade for the entire complex.