Residence Edgar Tinel

The building is situated in Sinaai, a small village in Flanders, Belgium.
Close to the rural core of Sinaai the building forms a connection with the village and the country houses and farms. This environment holds different building typologies: the elementary school, the local museum of the composer Edgar Tinel, shops, a funeral parlour and houses. As adapted to the scale of the surrounding buildings and in rule with the urban development regulations the residence has three floors, of which the upper is withdrawn from the street.

The condominium contains 17 apartments with private terraces and a common garden, 1 corner shop and carports in the basement. All apartments have an outdoor room, a large south orientated terrace viewing the garden terraces, the common garden and the village church and school.

At the street side the north east orientated building is a massive dark monolith in brick stone and a zinc roof. This opposed to the fragmentary south facade which is colourful and light, viewing the common garden. We used a light open steel construction for the hanging terraces, filled with stucco boards in a colour inspired by the plants in the garden: the Aucuba Japonica.
The carport situated in the half open basement is open to the garden terraces planted with sedum. This open space creates the opportunity for garden parties, children playground, cleaning the car,...: a place for social contact.

During the design process of the project one of the objectives was that the buyers/occupants would be a mixture of people: young, elderly, couples, singles, single parents, families with children. So the apartments vary from 70 m2 to 140 m2, with one, two or three bedrooms. At present, June 2008, most of the apartments are sold and occupied. We see that our intentions are confirmed. This results in a lively occupants community.

Photograph by: Erik Van Belleghem