Peripheral Decay: a comparative study of French and Belgian mass housing projects, 1953-1973
Lead Research Organisation:
Cardiff University
Department Name: School of Modern Languages
Abstract
This project examines the state-led construction of mass housing in France and Belgium during the post-war period. In particular it focuses on the development of grands ensembles - a transnational phenomenon of high-rise concrete estates that were built from the mid-1950s with the aim of securely housing growing urban populations. The purpose of this research is to contrast the French and Belgian planning cultures that dictated the construction of the grands ensembles, assessing key disparities in national approaches to planning and the results that these different cultures had on the people who inhabited such projects.
The contrasting planning cultures are examined via two case studies: the Laeken Cité Modèle in Brussels and a similar example from France (yet to be chosen). Key to this is the examination of major planners and architects who worked on the projects in question, such as Fernand Brunfaut (Brussels) and Eugène Beaudouin (Paris). Drawing on Rosemary Wakeman's (2016) work on critical figures in post-war housing, this approach explores the background and ideologies of these individuals, as well as the transnational networks in which they operated. The purpose of this is to assess how they each contributed to the unique planning cultures of their respective countries, while also demonstrating which elements of urban planning were developed at a more international level.
Moving away from specific figures, this project also considers wider influences on national planning cultures. This includes the international experience of modernism, which rose to prominence during the interwar years and whose doctrine of functionality continued to direct house building after WWII. It likewise discusses the effects of socio-political issues such as the growth of consumerism and the migration of regional and colonial populations to cities, assessing how the two states tackled such challenges and how their responses framed their respective approaches to mass housing.
The second part of this project concerns the results of these different planning cultures. Adopting a more ethnographic approach, it investigates the experiences of grands ensembles residents in the decades following their construction. It aims to establish whether the grands ensembles were effective living spaces, discussing the varying provision of facilities, connections (or lack of) to urban centres and interactions between residents and state authority (something first explored by Colette Pétonnet in 1968). The purpose of this 'bottom-up' investigation is to bring the planning cultures examined in the first part back down to the ground, linking their lofty aims to the social realities they engendered. In doing so it also provides a basis for a further comparison of national planning cultures, contrasting their effectiveness in providing secure mass housing over a long period of time.
Beyond its main comparison of national planning cultures, this study also feeds into wider debates around urban history and social housing. It notably addresses the current perspective of grands ensembles as marginalised communities associated with crime and deprivation (particularly in France) and seeks to explore whether these problems can be traced back to the planning cultures that created them. More broadly, housing provision has in recent years become a major topic in both public and academic discourse, with many researchers now re-examining historical planning methods in order to consider viable solutions for the future (e.g. John Boughton's Municipal Dreams, 2018). This project contributes to this discourse by returning to European planning styles of the post-war period, assessing their successes and failures with an eye to explaining their ongoing legacies. Lastly, the study adds to the literature on post-war Belgium, which has received relatively little academic interest despite its centrality to post-war European redevelopment and the shift towards European integration.
The contrasting planning cultures are examined via two case studies: the Laeken Cité Modèle in Brussels and a similar example from France (yet to be chosen). Key to this is the examination of major planners and architects who worked on the projects in question, such as Fernand Brunfaut (Brussels) and Eugène Beaudouin (Paris). Drawing on Rosemary Wakeman's (2016) work on critical figures in post-war housing, this approach explores the background and ideologies of these individuals, as well as the transnational networks in which they operated. The purpose of this is to assess how they each contributed to the unique planning cultures of their respective countries, while also demonstrating which elements of urban planning were developed at a more international level.
Moving away from specific figures, this project also considers wider influences on national planning cultures. This includes the international experience of modernism, which rose to prominence during the interwar years and whose doctrine of functionality continued to direct house building after WWII. It likewise discusses the effects of socio-political issues such as the growth of consumerism and the migration of regional and colonial populations to cities, assessing how the two states tackled such challenges and how their responses framed their respective approaches to mass housing.
The second part of this project concerns the results of these different planning cultures. Adopting a more ethnographic approach, it investigates the experiences of grands ensembles residents in the decades following their construction. It aims to establish whether the grands ensembles were effective living spaces, discussing the varying provision of facilities, connections (or lack of) to urban centres and interactions between residents and state authority (something first explored by Colette Pétonnet in 1968). The purpose of this 'bottom-up' investigation is to bring the planning cultures examined in the first part back down to the ground, linking their lofty aims to the social realities they engendered. In doing so it also provides a basis for a further comparison of national planning cultures, contrasting their effectiveness in providing secure mass housing over a long period of time.
Beyond its main comparison of national planning cultures, this study also feeds into wider debates around urban history and social housing. It notably addresses the current perspective of grands ensembles as marginalised communities associated with crime and deprivation (particularly in France) and seeks to explore whether these problems can be traced back to the planning cultures that created them. More broadly, housing provision has in recent years become a major topic in both public and academic discourse, with many researchers now re-examining historical planning methods in order to consider viable solutions for the future (e.g. John Boughton's Municipal Dreams, 2018). This project contributes to this discourse by returning to European planning styles of the post-war period, assessing their successes and failures with an eye to explaining their ongoing legacies. Lastly, the study adds to the literature on post-war Belgium, which has received relatively little academic interest despite its centrality to post-war European redevelopment and the shift towards European integration.