Bastion Housing Ensemble

A five-storey brick apartment building completing a historic bastion edge, mediating between a 19th-century institutional block and the town silhouette.

Brief

Fill the last gap on the bastion without imitating the monument next door.

Approach

The new block picks up the neighbour's parapet lines and brick tonality but breaks the mass with recessed balconies and a lighter top floor. Sightline studies from the town walls drove the massing.

Outcome

Planning approval on the first submission — rare for this location — and all 38 apartments sold off-plan.

Photography: Henk Monster — Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.