Housing and Reconstruction

Abstract

THE Belgian has always shown a keen interest in proper housing. On the whole, he loves to be properly housed and tries very hard to achieve this with such materials as he has. The country produces the various building materials, excepting only timber, which to a great extent is imported from the northern countries. In the building industry, skilled labor is ordinarily plentiful and architectural services are fairly cheap. The people are clean and careful and keep their homes in good order. All these conditions have won for Belgium the reputation of being the besthoused country in the world. During the second half of the nineteenth century, this country, like many others, suffered from a housing crisis with respect to both quality and quantity. Besides the improvement by the municipalities of sanitary conditions in the towns, the Belgian Government took the matter in hand by promulgating a law (1889) on working-class housing. The state lent money at a low interest to people with little means wishing to build or buy a home. This law, which was favorably commented upon even abroad, favored loan offices even more than building societies. It enabled a workman to become owner of his house, providing he produced the necessary initial funds. The act was little concerned with the quality of the dwellings, which on the whole were constructed according to the builder's fancy rather than according to carefully considered plans, and with a view rather to the low price of land than to the availability of decent roads, water supply, sewage, drainage, transportation, schools, playgrounds, and all material, medical, and cultural facilities. When, twenty years later, the results of the 1889 act were summed up, it became clear that this law had hardly improved the quality of housing. Neither were results better from a quantitative point of view. At a congress held at Liege in 1910, it was stated that the number of home owners had increased by 65,000, but that 250,000 houses were necessary to satisfy the needs of the Belgian population. Government and architects put themselves to the study of a new law, and this was just ready for enactment when the war of 1914 broke out. During the ensuing fouryear period no new homes were built. On the other hand, 70,000 houses were completely wrecked and 225,000 damaged.