Anyone who wants to live in a glasshouse in the centre of the city needs strong nerves – or a design like the one that De Baes Architects and Sophie Van Noten developed for a client in Kortrijk, Belgium. The site in a former working-class district is only 3.80 metres wide between two flanking firewalls, but is 14 metres deep. Bordered on either side by continuous rows of houses, at the rear the site adjoins a former industrial district.