STW0047 – HERZELE – Stekelbos
design: master plan for a chain of linked private and social houses and for the valley landscape of the Stekelbos site
type: urbanism
client: SOLVA + social housing company Denderstreek
designteam urbanism and landscape: Studio Thomas Willemse
designteam architecture and urbanism: agmen
time: 2023 – 2024
Herzele's landscape consists of parallel lines of the main road, the Molenbeek stream and the railway. At right angles to these alternate the figures of village axes and side valleys, of built areas and open space.
The interlocking of new green-blue and red fingers on the edge of the Stekelbos and the village centre of Hillegem creates a maximum interface between compact strands of housing with views to the valley landscape, much like on the large scale. We apply this principle with green-blue 'stekels' ('spikes') of the Stekelbos (Forest of spikes) alternating with a compact red residential chain of linked houses in the landscape. By extending the green foothills of the forest between the (new) homes, these will have the residential qualities of living in a core and in relation to the landscape.
The housing volumes of the residential chain of linked houses feel familiar, but provide opportunities to respond to today's needs with smaller ground-floor housing units combined with houses on top. In this way, types of housing for the elderly, single people, families, etc. come together in one garland. Spatially, this is also reflected in the ‘dancing roofs’ that reveal the diversity of housing types by subtly staggering the roofs and facades.