The new building will be built in the Nieuve-Zuid area near the banks of the Scheldt River. In the 24-storey building, in addition to 116 apartments, shops, offices and common areas are planned. This variety of functions already increases the social sustainability of the project, but the architects decided to further strengthen this line. In their opinion, the usual situation for multi-apartment housing, when tenants barely know each other, because they meet only in the lobby or in the elevator, can be easily remedied.
To do this, they divided the house into "vertical communities" with the same type of apartments. There will be several of them in the building - from small, intended for joint students renting housing, to spacious ones - for large families or people who combine home and office in one room. The green balconies of apartments of the same type will be surrounded by a “frame” that makes them semi-private, semi-public space. These frames also enliven the façade drawing, reminding them of the layout of old cities.
At the ends of the house there will be winter gardens available to all residents, a bicycle repair shop and a dining room on the ground floor, a space on the 5th floor with a green roofed "stylobate" (it will be open to both residents and employees located in the house offices), as well as a 3-tiered "oasis" at the top of the tower, which offers views of the river and the city.
The volume of the tower was determined by the master plan of Nieuve-Zuid, but thanks to the efficient allocation of space, the architects were able to accommodate 15,000 m2 more spacious apartments and public spaces than originally intended. In addition, the balconies, roof terraces and conservatories that serve as the "shell" of the house add another 5000 m2 of usable space.
It is planned that the building will use mainly warm gray-brown bricks, accentuated by white concrete surfaces. The architects also plan to bring the house to the PassivHaus standard.
