OFFICE 144

A research project proposed an alternative to the established housing strategy in Flanders. Challenging the traditional distinction between city and landscape, the project accepts the contemporary condition of an entirely urbanised ‘even covered field’. Rather than further densifying the city or building exclusively along the main roads, the proposal introduces the figure of an ‘oversized block’ that recognises existing agglomerations as fragments of the artificial landscape. Housing lots are set perpendicular to the road around the perimeter, keeping open the views of the landscape while forming a common green space at the core. Investigating the architectonic scale of the territory, the autonomous village-like structures create living entities of suburban life.