ONLINE BRUSSELS HERITAGE - ONE-DAY SEMINAR - 11/12/2014

IEDER ZIJN HUIS: THE RENOVATION OF A MODERNIST SOCIAL HOUSING TOWER BLOCK

CHARLOTTE NYS
ORIGIN ARCHITECTURE & ENGINEERING

THE RENOVATION PROJECT OF THE IEDER ZIJN HUIS SOCIAL TOWER BLOCK COMPLIES WITH CURRENT REQUIREMENTS REGARDING INSULATION, COMFORT, FIRE SAFETY, ACOUSTICS AND SAFETY, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BUILDING, ITS LAYOUT AND ORGANISATION, DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURAL LOGIC. THE RESOURCES USED AND THE RESULTS OF THIS AMBITIOUS OPERATION, WHICH INCLUDED PROBLEMS REGARDING HOUSING, ECONOMICS, ENERGY AND HERITAGE, ARE PRESENTED HERE.

The following contribution is a presentation of the renovation project of the leder Zijn Huis modernist tower block in Evere. Through Beliris, the federal government has undertaken to renovate this building. Beliris determined the general building programme, including the important principle that the homes must comply with current regulations, in particular the Energy Performance of Buildings (EBP) regulations. This had to be done with the necessary respect for and/or conservation of this heritage's characteristics. For this project the building history research was carried out by Ghent University, the building physics and acoustics were studied by Daidalos Peutz, the techniques were studied by Marcq en Roba and the stability and architecture by Origin.

Belgium has an exceptionally rich and extensive heritage when it comes to social (i.e. government-assisted) housing. The construction of social housing has played an active role in the history of our Belgian architecture.

Pictured are two garden city buildings (fig. 1 and 2) and two tower blocks (fig. 3 and 4). This recent heritage was built between the 1920s and the 1970s. The difficulty with these homes is that they often do not achieve current comfort requirements or comply with EPB regulations. Heritage buildings are all too often in a terribly dilapidated state. They are mostly unlisted, which means that this valuable heritage is in danger of being lost.

Ieder Zijn Huis is located in Evere. A defining feature of this building is that the tower is long, narrow and high: 9 m wide, 90 m long and 50 m high. In 1954, Willy Van Der Meeren received the design commission from mayor Franz Guillaume, a socialist who was very interested in this type of residence. Initially, Le Corbusier had been asked to build this tower block. When he declined, Franz Guillaume turned to Willy Van Der Meeren. There were two calls for tenders because the initial price was too high. Construction began in 1959 and the building was delivered in 1961.

WILLY VAN DER MEEREN AND HIS CONSTRUCTION PRINCIPLES

Willy Van Der Meeren was born in 1923 and died in 2002. He trained as an architect at the La Cambre modernist school of architecture. Van Der Meeren is best known for the CECA house, which he designed together with Leon Palm as a solution to the acute housing shortage at that time. It was an inexpensive labourer's cottage that

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