15/02/2001 and 06/12/2007¹, are Listed as part of the garden cities “as a whole”. Only the so-called outershell of these houses is listed: façades, roofs, exterior woodwork, etc.; in short, everything that is visible from the outside. In figure 2, the single-family dwellings are marked in red, duplexes in orange and low apartment buildings in blue.

Within the site (which is marked with a black line) many other buildings can be found, including two high-rise apartment buildings which are listed as monuments but are not part of the management plan.

Although built in the same way, not all listed houses are managed as social housing residences²; one quarter is managed privately and three quarters are managed by social housing companies.

LE LOGIS AND FLORÉAL: A MATTER OF COHERENCE

The whole garden city complex consists of two cooperatives, Le Logis and Floréal. Each has a centre characterised by high-rise buildings and central functions: offices, shops and even a theatre in Le Logis. The whole encompasses four entities characterised by the colour of the exterior woodwork. This is yellow for Floréal. Three entities are present in Le Logis: green/white, off-white and green/black.

The garden cities were built according to designs by four individuals. These were Louis Van der Swaelmen who designed the spatial structure of the neighbourhoods, and the design plan; and three architects: Jean-Jules Eggericx, Raymond Moenaert and Lucien Francois. More than 90% of the houses were built according to Eggericx's designs; Moenaert and Francois designed approximately one hundred houses, all in Floréal.

The 1,060 dwellings were constructed across six sites and in 16 design phases (or dossiers). The varying procurements, prices and contractors resulted in diversity in techniques and details to the on-site phases. When drawing up the management plan, we are confronted with this diversity; we must ascertain whether this is a coincidental diversity with no importance for further conservation or a conceptual diversity which must be studied and maintained.

The garden cities comprise a large, cohesive whole. For decades people

Fig . 1

Houses in the Brussels-Capital Region. (Guido Stegen, based on the “Inventaris van de Volkswoningen te Brussel” (Inventory of Public Housing in Brussels), Sint-Lukaswerkgemeenschap, Lagrou E., Sept 1985).

Fig . 2

The garden cities are listed as an entirety by the Government decision of the Brussels-Capital Region Government of 15 February 2001 and 6 December 2007 (© ARSIS).

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