Thin steel letters arranged at the top of a wall announce a dream destination to those who enter here: Mexico. In the heart of an exceedingly congested Molenbeek, this allusion, which is not lacking in poetry, soothes the imagination. But does the social housing building designed by VERS.A really deliver on its promise to take visitors away? Yes and no.

The building does provide a change of scenery, thanks to the created landscape, precisely. With great finesse, the architects, assisted by the landscape architects of Landinzicht, have turned a former wasteland into a genuine tableau whose depth of field has been mastered to perfection. Like a stereoscope – that early device which made it possible to add depth to photographs – the new front is like a frame that draws in the visitor’s gaze. What is habitually smooth – the street front – here becomes hollow, and the eye can take in the beautiful complexity of what makes Brussels what it is: the interiors of its city blocks, which make up a separate world. This effect of depth and relief rests on a bold choice in terms of urban planning: not to fill in entirely the built frontage that was left available, contrary to what was suggested in the contract pertaining to the Léopold ii neighbourhood contract. The desire to preserve some majestic trees, which appeared there spontaneously, prompted vers.a to compact a small apartment block against one of two party walls, freeing up land for a park. The boundary between the park and the street is clearly marked, but remains porous: the wall of the public park, shaped as a succession of large open frames, makes possible the ‘stereoscopic’ effect, heightened at night by a lighting system that accentuates this small interior world.