Social Housing Wilgenstraat

The Wilgenstraat project, developed within the masterplan by Bovenbouw, reimagines the Seefhoek as a resilient urban district where collective and social living regain spatial and societal meaning. The replacement of three outdated housing slabs lacking residential quality makes way for 309 social housing units, introducing a renewed urban balance between living, meeting, and landscape. Designed by Areal, Tom Thys and 360 architecten, the ensemble unfolds as a family of buildings that reconciles diversity with coherence. Two monoliths and two end volumes frame an open neighbourhood park, where architecture and nature resonate in mutual reinforcement. The robust brick architecture, with its rounded corners, deep loggias, and animated plinths, translates mass into human scale. Inside, light, connectedness, and micro-collectivity define the everyday. A rational structure merges economic clarity with urban generosity, shaping an architecture of soft robustness that does not merely renew the Seefhoek but redefines it as a place of identity, community, and dignity.