‘A climate’ for living, a time for working’

01 2016

KU LEUVEN

Instructor: Prof. Christophe Polak

Project - Pixel City Status - Academic Project

Location - Antwerp, Belgium

Program - Housing, Commercial Mix

Site area - 20,000 m2

The Pixel City Idea calls into question the existing typological challenge of multi-unit housing, with taking expanding populations and parallel urban growth into consideration. The contemporary urban condition of Hoboken on the outskirts of Antwerp, Belgium is distressed by housing shortages distinguished by inflationary markets and increased economic disparity that also puts pressure on the existing natural greenscapes. Residents of this area are confronted by an increasing isolation compromise between social interaction and nature.

This intervention seeks solutions that would stem this trend through typological disruption, reconsidering existing structures and expectations of contemporary housing, with an ambition of innovating or reinventing conventional forms of domesticity through the agency of architecture. This project invites anticipation of antisocial behaviours, climate-friendly connections, and material strategies found on modularity and repetition in pursuit of challenging contemporary forms of urbanity. The endorsement of sustainable means of connectivity that requires physical activities rather than over-reliance on existing infrastructure that endorses cars. This intervention explores the consequence of density, amenity, and public and private adjacency, with consideration of novel approaches to domestic propriety, culture, and tradition.