And so the garden city was created…

From yesterday to today in Molenbeek-St Jean: the garden cities of Diongre, Saulnier, and Nogent Avec a diversity of sizes, shapes, construction materials, styles, and property rights, about twenty garden cities were built on the outskirts of Brussels in the context of reconstruction after the Première Guerre World War. The craze for this model, intended to deal with the "housing deficit," however, only lasted a decade. Appearing following the 1920 National Conference on Low-Cost Housing, it was abandoned in favor of high-rise construction after the 3rd International Congress of Modern Architecture (C.I.A.M.), organized in Brussels in 1930. This guided tour presents three cities, close to each other, which were built in less than 5 years in the “Nouveau Molenbeek”. We will discover their differences and similarities both in their design and realization, but also in their evolution from yesterday to today, according to the urban and social opportunities and challenges that have appeared over the last 100 years.