Category: Buildings

Abandoned red brick house in the Trichon district.

Red brick house with blue woodwork. Architecture from the 1930s, or perhaps even earlier.

Another house in the Trichon district of Roubaix. It looks as if it has been abandoned for months, but the other day I saw scaffolding in one of the rooms. So someone is renovating it, or at least reworking it. I hope so. Its shape is so unusual, with a style so typical of Roubaix, yet it also has real charm, thanks to the small balcony above the entrance door. This fine building deserves to be brought back to life and to have its soul restored.

Little “flatiron” building in the Trichon area

A building set at the corner of two streets, shaped like a triangle reminiscent of a “flatiron.” Its façade is made of dark brick, with several openings either bricked up or sealed with metal shutters. On the ground floor, a glass-panelled door with decorative details stands at the pointed tip of the building, framed by a lighter plaster section contrasting with the brick. Electrical cables run across the façade, and a streetlamp juts out above. On the sidewalk, trash bins and a traffic sign complete the scene. The overall impression is one of abandonment, a place where time seems to have stopped.

A little “flatiron” building (a nod to the Flatiron Building in New York—though I admit it’s rather pretentious to compare this small cluster of bricks with its famous counterpart). I like its narrowness, and thus its triangular shape. When I see this kind of building, I always wonder what it looks like inside. I imagine small, oddly fitted rooms, a bit crooked, full of hidden little nooks and crannies.