Building in the ugliest country in the world

Paul Hendrikse Ateliers en Wonen Distillery, Robbrecht & Daem Architects, 2016–2022

Renaat Braem In the 1960s, he built a large-scale, iconic housing project here, inspired by a socialist ideal that held the old city (read: society) to be beyond redemption. They had to start with a blank sheet of paper. The Sint-Maartensdal complex epitomises what he had in mind for ‘the ugliest country in the world’.

Among a new generation of architects, trained after May ’68, there was a growing realisation that things had to change. They were averse to large-scale projects and to the lack of resident participation in all of this. Initially, the focus was on small-scale developments that offered the less well-off new opportunities to continue living in the city, but which often simultaneously reused or redefined existing structures – tentatively at first, but gradually yielding striking results.

This generation of architects, supported by the non-profit organisation Stad en Architectuur, founded in 1998, managed to persuade the city council to embark on a gradual transformation of the city. On the cycle tour, we will visit projects that bear witness to this transition.

We begin our day with a visit to the Centrale Werkplaatsen, where several large halls are being refurbished, and also to the new housing estate by Bogdan Van Broeck (now &Bogdan): 134 homes built on a stylised grid, with space for greenery and socialising.

We then cycle past the conversion of an Art Deco monastery, with an extension for a circus school by LAVA architects, and the subtle integration into the street pattern of a new residence by Coussée-Goris-Huyghe architects. We also take in the work of some icons of post-war modernism, such as Marc Dessauvage (Erasmus House) and Paul van Aerschot (Library).

More recent developments can be seen in areas where large-scale complexes have been partially or completely demolished: the former St Peter’s Hospital, featuring a residential tower and homes designed by David Chipperfield; the redevelopment around the De Hoorn brewery, plus a new residential neighbourhood by Robbrecht and Daem Architects; the old Vaartkom, where derelict buildings have been repurposed and others have made way for new developments, featuring work by BEEL Architects, Xaveer de Geyter, …

Projects by Czaar and a33 architects form the common thread running through the day. These firms have brought about the transformation of the city centre like no others. You can read more about this in the wonderful book Working in the Ugliest Country in the World: Caring Urban Regeneration in Practice, by Ludo Bekker and Erik Min.