Social housing tower
The tower expresses the ambition to provide affordable and qualitative housing by standing proudly between its high-rise neighbours developed by the private market. Prominently located at the ringroad of Leuven, the residential tower offers 90 social rental apartments, of which 8 are suited for disabled inhabitants. The tower offers splendid views, abundant daylight and carefully designed circulation spaces to its inhabitants, showcasing how generous affordable living can be.
Where Dijle and Vunt intersect the ringroad of Leuven, these rivers mark the border between two distinct urban fabrics: the fine-grain texture along the old ramparts in the southeast and the much larger scale of the Vaartkom-Tweewaters development in the northwest. As a 'Gestalt', the tower takes a clear position between these two conditions.
The longitudinal circulation core divides the tower in two halves and draws daylight deep inside. It becomes visible in the street facade in a white steel exterior staircase that links the ground-level entrance to the rooftop terrace. By elevating one side of the tower, a spacious covered entrance zone is formed and the public space merges under the tower.
Each halve meets its urban condition through a thoughtful choice in residential and terrace typology. In the loggia-apartments the view towards river, greenery and rooftop landscape is framed by transverse structural axes with floor-to celing-high windows and open terraces. On the panorama side, the load-bearing façades offer a more introvert condition with panoramic views along canal and railway landscape.
Driven by the idea that a tower should be constructed for an extended lifespan, special attention is given to the building as a sustainable framework: a concrete structure for lifetime, technical shafts as main arteries carefully positioned but open for reconfiguration, and interior finishings as adaptable but replaceable infill.
High standards were adopted for insulation, energy efficiency, and acoustics (triple glazing, heat pumps, PV installation, …) resulting in very low energy costs for the inhabitants.
