Garden Cities of Brussels. The Modernity of Tradition

During the Twenties twenty-six new social housing neighborhoods were built around Brussels. These settlements reproduce English garden-city model, more precisely the garden-suburb, and formed a “socialist ring” who guided the urban expansion. It is crucial to notice that even if there are few examples of modernist architecture the largest part of houses adopted a traditional style. Also the urban planning is mostly of a vernacular design. The reasons of this follow economical and functional needs in terms of construction and maintenance and nevertheless a culturalist ideological approach. The architects and urban designers with a leading role on the conception of those neighborhoods had been involved in the international debate about the post World War I reconstruction. They also actively contributed to the national debate on modernity versus tradition by publishing pamphlets and articles on the most important specialized magazines: «La Cité», «Bâtir», «L’Habitation à Bon Marché», etc. Among the emblematical cases there are the garden-cities of Le Logis – Floréal (1921-1933) and Kappelveld (1922-1927). The first is the most valuable example of vernacular urban planning absolutely integrated with a traditional garden design and a picturesque variety of regionalist country-side architecture. The second is a unique case where the “purist-cubist” design is associated with the “traditional-regionalist” design. Flat and slighted roofs, concrete and brick walls, metal and wood windows share the same planned site, traditionalist and modernist architects worked together for collectivity wellness. The “regionalist” architects had here the opportunity to experiment a rational approach to the methodology of conception and execution.