OFFICE 285

The housing complex is made of two identical towers with a square in between. Located next to the main railway station in Ghent, this project is part of a larger redevelopment, and it had a predefined base: the foundations, as well as the underground parking garage had already been built. The project thus adapted to the existing structural grid, with the footprint of the two slightly shifted towers same as the footprint of the square. The towers are conceived as shelves of cast-in-situ concrete 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. The plans range to accommodate four, six or eight housing units per floor, each with a small winter garden. The central core has a generous bicycle storage, so the residents can bring their bicycles to their apartment floor, rather than leave them downstairs. Besides housing, the program 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 railways, performing as a street facade of the entire complex.