Logis-Floréal : Art Déco regionalist

The two twin garden cities, Le Logis and Floréal, constitute, with 1,500 dwellings, the largest ensemble of low-cost housing planned in Belgium during the Interwar period. Enabled by the progressive law of 1919, which created the National Society for Low-Cost Housing and Dwellings, it is the fruit of the union of two cooperatives, among which that of the typographer workers of the newspaper Le Peuple. The garden city movement was imported from England where many architects, including Jean-Jules Eggericx coordinator of the Logis-Floréal, trained during the first war. It constitutes a breeding ground for experimentation, both formal and constructive. It refers to a ruralist and individual ideal while at the same time resting on the solidarity of the cooperators. This new way of life combines standardization and the picturesque, which will be the key to its success. The garden cities were designed, from their origin, to ensure a nourishing function for their inhabitants. This has moreover been redeveloped through the Ferme du Chant of the Cailles, installed temporarily on public land intended for the construction of housing. Today, however, the functions of urban agriculture and habitat are put in tension: if the demand for affordable housing has never been so important, one cannot ignore the importance of open spaces and short circuits, at a time of climate transition.