Emiliani

Creating a living space for 28 disabled adults in an existing doctor's home and the adjoining park garden in Zaffelare

The measure of a good life is a life we can all recognize and experience. It revolves around the simple, essential values that hold meaning for every person: comfort, safety, connection, autonomy, a sense of home, and purpose. Guided by this vision, NU is designing a living environment for Emiliani vzw for 28 adults with disabilities. The aim is to create a place that responds in the most straightforward way to each individual’s unique needs and desires. In these homes—places the residents will proudly be able to call their own—each person will find a space attuned to their mood, character, and the moment of the day. It is an architecture of spatial gradients: shifting from intimate to public, from sheltered to free, from stimulating to calm, from quiet to dynamic.

This variety of atmospheres is translated into the outdoor spaces and the spatial organization of the homes. The two rear dwellings are stacked horizontally and arranged carefully among the trees. A key starting point for the design was to position the required program on the site in a balanced way. We sought a placement that would strengthen the connection with the surrounding environment while also reducing pressure on the wooded area behind. Without care, this group of trees would gradually shrink into a narrow edge of vegetation, even though such clusters are already rare in Zaffelare. In the proposal, the existing trees are therefore intentionally used as spatial anchors for the dwellings. In both buildings, we aimed to make life among the trees as tangible as possible and to minimize the boundary between inside and outside. The different arms of the building extend outward, creating various places on the site: the pond, the street, the communal garden, the area around the central tree… By placing shared spaces such as the hobby room close to the street and the public gardens, we create a welcoming architecture that opens itself to the village of Zaffelare and its residents. An architecture that encourages encounters, both between the residents and the village, and among the residents themselves.

The thorough renovation of the doctor’s villa will be wind- and watertight by the end of 2025. In the new woodland residence, finishing works have already begun. By the summer of 2026, both buildings will be ready to welcome their new residents.

client Emiliani vzw
location Zaffelare
date 2021 - heden
status execution
icw Jan Minne, graphic and landscape designer
contractor Vandenbussche NV
engineering office Fraeye & Partners (stability), Boydens engineering (techniques)
team NU Tim Van Verdegem, Bert Stoffels, Elya Delanote, Fien Deruyter, Jarno Verlinde