— Project intent
A precise answer to the site and programme.
In Wavre, in the province of Walloon Brabant, STARC designed a new-build residential building on an enclosed plot within a dense urban fabric, comprising two apartments and a studio spread across three habitable floors and converted attic space. The project addresses a clear urban challenge: filling a residual void between heterogeneous party walls with a coherent volumetry and a restrained contemporary architectural language.
The closed-row implantation, set on the street alignment, reinstates the continuity of the built frontage and makes full use of the limited footprint. The compactness of the building optimises the total living area while maintaining a measured dialogue with the scale of the neighbouring constructions. The pitched roof responds to the surrounding urban fabric and ensures a carefully considered integration within this city-centre context.
The facade rhythm and fenestration are calibrated to the scale of the street without replicating a fixed vernacular register. The careful attention to natural light shapes the positioning of openings on the front facade and in the roof, particularly within the attic level. The vertical distribution of the dwellings ensures the independence of each unit, and the transition between private threshold and public space gives this fragment of urban tissue a legible and considered architectural presence.
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