From careful dialogue with clients and users to the creative potential of programmatic and contextual parameters, the Baumans Deffet architectural practice puts to the test, in its social housing project in Laeken, a conciliatory approach that works with the constraints of the site and its function.

‘Stéphanie’, a dark, massive building fifty metres long, rises gradually towards the corner formed with Rue Princesse Clémentine and blends skilfully with the rhythm of the early 20th-century terraced houses. Inside, a dense programme: eighteen flats and a community restaurant for the City of Brussels’ CPAS are interwoven on a narrow plot.