In the south of Brussels, BOB361 has carved out an attractive little neighbourhood hidden in the heart of a rather closed city block. The buildings, using a variety of familiar spatial typologies, fold into and around a newly reclaimed public domain. The main motifs of that domain are sustainable design principles, a gradual transition between public and private, and ecological inclusiveness.

By breaking open the city block, which is sandwiched between two busy, unpleasant avenues, a previously shielded interior is exposed as a new pedestrian zone cuts across the block. This creates a new, pleasant semi-public shelter, where you can’t always tell the fronts of buildings from their backs. This may make the new space difficult to read in part, but it is precisely where new accessibility meets residual spaces and backyards that surprising (and promising) encounters between old and new arise.