In Antwerp’s Cadix district, Sergison Bates, Bovenbouw and Bulk have created a city block comprising five buildings. The result – 200 flats and 26 commercial spaces – shows how brick can enhance urban living.

‘Urban architecture,’ wrote Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani a few years ago, ‘must look back on tradition. The ancient city, from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, from the Baroque and Neoclassical periods, but also from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, followed a formal convention that was not considered a burden, but a canon of beauty and privilege. Behind the regular facades of Siena, Florence, London and Paris lived not oppressed people or conformists, but a colourful group of citizens of different origins and personalities. The canon to which they submitted did not testify to a lack of character: it was a sign of shared responsibility and community pride.’