Small but mighty: the renovation of a Brussels town house on Rue de la Carpe, by Hanne Eckelmans and BC Materials, may well become a textbook example of densification, the circular economy, cohabitation and sexy urban eco-construction.

When you think about it, the Brussels town house is a marvel of resilience. Over the course of a century, it has undergone all kinds of transformations. A first generation of architects divided it up into flats. The next generation made its mark on the rear annexes. Over the past decade, another type of operation has flourished: the densification of Brussels housing with upward extensions. Taking advantage of the jagged Brussels skyline and boosted by the boom in timber construction, these projects address a contemporary problem. How can we densify the city so that an ever-growing population can continue to live there?