De Secretaris

The residential project 'De Secretaris', located on the Antwerpsesteenweg in Malle, fits completely into its surroundings. In this project, we also try to contribute to a future-proof village architecture, by reinforcing the village center with generous buildings. 

 Subtle recoils and volume shifts give the building a naturalness in its context. In the front, the building is shifted back to make space for a rest area along the busy road. To the side, a vaulted watercourse is reopened at the edge of the site. To the rear, a large community garden will be provided. 

We used the large slope in the terrain to avoid having to provide underground parking, but to use split levels to naturally slide the parking to the rear under the building. 

In this way, this space can also be easily used as a collective covered outdoor space at the community garden. 

The building will have a commercial space on the street side and 9 compact and affordable apartments on the upper floors. Each of the corner apartments will be organized around the central dining room. Compact indoor terraces are optimized by shaping the parapet as seating. 

 All techniques in the building are provided collectively and each apartment will have its own underground storage.