©2023 built with Indexhibit

A building–housing project for Brussels
part of the Rituals for Real Estate project

Choreographed over time through a sequence of project phases, a community emerges. The construction of the dwellings becomes an extended frolic; the complex task of building becomes a collective social event.

This project takes learnings from ritualistic building processes and finds strategies to reinterpret these social mechanisms for the urban context of Brussels, Belgium. The design framework enables one to create the backdrop—through architecture and the making of architecture—for a polyrhythmic choreography of cultural practices; to establish a new ritual for real estate.

Central to the project is a school where basic construction skills can be learnt, aimed at both building apprentices as well as future residents of the housing units.

Within the building grounds are a learning spaces with varying spatial qualities, suited for public workshops taking place on the street level of the building school. Meanwhile, shared domestic facilities—library, collective kitchen, laundry, play spaces—are used by inhabitants.

The living unit typologies cater to different household formations; cluster apartments where a eight to twelve small studio apartments are organised around a shared living area and kitchen, maisonettes for four to six people, as well as the more conventional studio and two bedroom apartment units.

 
 
https://melissalulujin.com/files/gimgs/th-74_R4RE_Collage Exterior.jpg
 
 
https://melissalulujin.com/files/gimgs/th-74_R4RE_Collage Interior.jpg
 
 
https://melissalulujin.com/files/gimgs/th-74_R4RE_Exterior entry.jpg
 
 
https://melissalulujin.com/files/gimgs/th-74_R4RE_Existing site.jpg
 
 
https://melissalulujin.com/files/gimgs/th-74_R4RE_Project site.jpg
 
 
https://melissalulujin.com/files/gimgs/th-74_R4RE_Individual buildings.jpg
 
 
https://melissalulujin.com/files/gimgs/th-74_R4RE_Building description.jpg
 
 
https://melissalulujin.com/files/gimgs/th-74_R4RE_1 The School.jpg
 
 
https://melissalulujin.com/files/gimgs/th-74_R4RE_2 The Apartments.jpg
 
 
https://melissalulujin.com/files/gimgs/th-74_R4RE_3 The Barn.jpg
 
 
https://melissalulujin.com/files/gimgs/th-74_R4RE_4 The Cottage.jpg
 
 
https://melissalulujin.com/files/gimgs/th-74_R4RE_5 The Suites.jpg
 
 
https://melissalulujin.com/files/gimgs/th-74_R4RE_6 The Lofts.jpg