Sprouted All Around: The Emergence and Evolution of Housing Estates in Brussels, Belgium

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the socioeconomic evolution of large housing estates in Brussels, Belgium, in particular their role in shaping residential segregation in the city. As in many European countries, modernist and functionalist ideas of the mid-twentieth century led to the raising of large housing estates in Brussels, in an attempt to offer middle-class households affordable yet modern and comfortable dwellings. However, contrary to other countries, the development in Belgium was marked by general housing policies that promoted homeownership, with limited investment in social housing, and a lack of laws and political vision related to spatial planning Whereas some public ensembles were conceived by modernist architects, most of Brussels' large housing estates were built by private contractors in peripheral neighbourhoods and were aimed at homeownership of the lower middle class. In this chapter, we first present a brief historical perspective of the policies, ideologies and territorial processes that made it possible for housing estates to develop and spread in Brussels. Next, we analyse how large housing estates evolved since the 1990s in terms of socioeconomic composition and the role they play in segregation. We finally discuss the challenges, current perspectives and political awareness with respect to large housing estate. Our findings point out that Brussels' housing estates are spatially scattered and have only a limited impact on the concentration of deprivation and foreign nationals. However, the trends identified in our study indicate that housing estates can become important socioeconomic fractures at the local level.

Public space as a medium for emerging governance networks in post-privatised large housing estates in Tartu and Vilnius

“…Less discourse exists about the possible path-dependencies of the privatisation tracks that are chosen. In comparison, for example in the UK, Ireland and Spain, marketization has led to financialization and the growth of unregulated rental sector (Byrne 2020), in Belgium we can differentiate policies targeted at publicly and privately owned LHEs (Costa and de Valk 2018). On a challenging aspect, privatisation created a confusing mosaic of private owners in post-socialist housing districts, which can be difficult to solve later and determining that future urban planning tiptoes around these arrangements.…”

Large Housing Estates under Socialism

“…Although there are fewer housing estates in some cities-for example, in Athens (Kandylis et al 2018) or Brussels (Costa and de Valk 2018)-and even if they have been built outside the city's central areas, as in Paris (Lelévrier and Melic 2018), they are still a common characteristic in virtually all European cities. Despite many similarities in form and function, large variations among housing estates exist between European cities.…”

Lessons Learned from a Pan-European Study of Large Housing Estates: Origin, Trajectories of Change and Future Prospects

“…Although there are fewer housing estates in some cities, for example, in Athens (Kandylis et al 2018) or Brussels (Costa and de Valk 2018) and even if they have been built outside the city central areas as in Paris (Lelévrier and Melic 2018), they are still a common characteristic in virtually all European cities. Despite many similarities in form and function, large variations among housing estates exist between European cities.…”

“…Likewise, the current ability of residents to fund basic building maintenance may differ according to ownership structure. In Brussels (Costa and de Valk 2018), private owners are less capable of large-scale renovations and publicly owned apartments are therefore better maintained. In Tallinn, ethnicity (in the majority group, Estonian) rather than income predicts residents' willingness to afford large-scale housing renovations .…”

“…As a rule of thumb, there is more stigma attached to large housing estates in Western European cities (e.g. Costa and de Valk 2018) than in Eastern and Southern European cities. Stereotyping by the media has contributed to the poor reputation of housing estates and has diminished their chances for success.…”