The original Garden City idea, which brought together workers´ houses around a communal green space, has been lost in the quarter of the Tuighuisstraat, in Kortrijk. Today, garage doors and closed facades form a ribbon around an asphalted road. This ribbon prevents contact between the houses and the inner area, devaluating the public space inside. The project turns the rear into a second front.

While the inner area is given a new face, the quality, the extensibility, the flexibility and the value of the houses is considerably increased. The extension of the dwellings on the rear plot allow contemporary forms of living to find their place in the neighbourhood: kangaroo living, students living at home, working from home or co-working areas, studio spaces, hobby rooms, resident elderly, visitor's room, flexible housing with newly assembled families, ...

Both the bricks and roof tiles of the existing houses are reused for the new façades. A façade system that has been developed to easily adjust openings for future changes.

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Competition: First Prize