Transformation of a mixed-use building in Brussels

The transformation of this terraced mixed-use building, positioned at the street front of a Brussels boulevard, illustrates an architectural approach grounded in clarity and restraint within a dense and heterogeneous urban fabric. Completed in 2025, the project brings together office spaces on the lower floors and a residential unit on the upper levels, two programmes that the restructured façade distinguishes with precision while maintaining overall visual coherence.

STARC, an architecture firm based in Wallonia, developed its design concept through a careful reading of the surrounding built context: the vertical rhythms of neighbouring buildings, ranging from late neoclassical architecture to smoother twentieth-century façades, informed the organisation of the fenestration into regular bays running the full height of the building. The ground floor, treated with deliberate transparency, creates permeability between the public realm and the interior functions, while a small balcony at the second level introduces a subtle modulation into the vertical composition, marking the transition between the office and residential registers.

The chosen materiality, a uniform white render, unifies the successive interventions that had accumulated on the façade over time, restoring a sense of coherence to the building without ostentation. This clarifying gesture allows the building to hold its place within the Brussels streetscape with a measured urban presence, engaging in a discreet yet confident dialogue with its neighbours.

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