STW0038 – MOL – Egelsvennen
design: masterplan integral neighbourhood renovation Egelsvennen Mol
client: VMSW, Woonboog, municipality Mol
design team urbanism on the edge of landscape and architecture: Studio Thomas Willemse – collaborators: Gilles Houben
experts for participation and social-spatial-urbanism: Endeavour
expert heritage and architecture: Kalk Architecten
expert landscape: Atelier Horizon
time: 2022 -2023
image construction of the neighbourhood in 1970 ©Agentschap Onroerend Erfgoed - participation photos Karolien Bogaerts
The heritage and social housing neighbourhood Egelsvennen was conceived as a modernist ensemble with a maximum of collective and public open space in harmony with the landscape. The patio houses meander along the dunes and in between the pines. The minimal private outdoor space and maximum collective open space implies a particular way of living. Ad hoc additions by residents over time in and around their homes, the lack of clarity about what is public and what is collective, the thinning out of the forest, ... threaten to upturn the balance between the homes and the qualities of the surroundings and landscape.
A new pattern for the carpet-district that responds to the needs of residents today must be sought. Differentiating the continuous lawn creates patterns from public - to collective - to together - to private. Public woods again form part of the pattern of the neighbouring forests. Collective gardens can be equipped to complement the limited private outdoor spaces to play, garden, and come together.
A catalogue can again reinforce the ensemble in the neighbourhood. The qualities of the neighbourhood come from the unity of its landscape and architecture. Together with the residents, we develop a catalogue of new elements that give unity to what the residents clearly lack today and have often added.
The spatial neighbourhood renovation is part of a neighbourhood engine that goes much further. The neighbourhood engine is the working model with which neighbourhood capital in the form of people, tools and resources can be converted into added value for the neighbourhood. This involves both social tenants and private owners. This neighbourhood gain can manifest itself economically and socially, but also generates a greater environmental quality and greater comfort of housing for all residents.