A staggered staircase and a small terrace facing the street. With these two striking interventions, Els Claessens and Tania Vandenbussche of ECTV Architects brought light into a terraced house in Gentbrugge and gave it an exciting new look.

Kerkstraat in Gentbrugge is an unremarkable street, with equally unremarkable houses. Except for this one, opposite the local school. There, the City of Ghent subdivided a plot of land to enable families to purchase an affordable terraced house in the city. To ensure the quality of the architecture, buyers were required to work with an architect from a ‘pool’ selected by the city. Here and there, this led to architectural extravaganzas that stand out strangely against the older buildings. Els Claessens and Tania Vandenbussche (ECTV) did, however, strike the right note.