Tuinwijk Moortebeek, Brussels

The initiative for the development of the garden village of Cité de Moortebeek or Tuinwijk Moortebeek resulted from the foundation of the Housing Cooperative Collectieve Haarden (Hearths Collective) in 1921 by 120 members.

In 1922, aged 26, the architect Jean-Francois Houben won the design competition for the northern part of the new garden village of Moortebeek north of Anderlecht. With his design he placed himself firmly within the decorative strain of modern architecture. His projects, that also includes the garden village of Kapelleveld, show a strong Dutch influence with charming small dwellings with clear lines and decorative constructive elements. The houses south of the Avenue Shakespeare designed by the established architect Joseph Diongre show an even more expressive style of architecture and are probably of a later date. Extensions built after 1952 were designed by René Bragard (apartment blocks in the north) and Josse and Achille Mouton (apartments and terraces in the south).

The  dwellings of the two original sections of this garden village are characterised by the reoccurring use of off-white plaster for the rendering of the outer walls. The street facades have been emphasized by the use of simple details and the use of colour blocking (by Diongre). The placement and treatment of the buildings is related to long and short sight lines within and out of the garden village.

The Cité-Jardin Moortebeek is a garden village with a clear and rather repetitive layout which is much more varied in situ than comes across from the plan. The earliest part (A) is located north of the Avenue Shakespeare; the later part (B) directly south. After WW2 the former playing fields were built over with apartment buildings (C). South of the Avenue Shakespeare an area was developed with medium-rise blocks of flats and terraced housing (D). Around the garden village large high-rises have been erected, like the brutalist Parc du Peterbois (literally Peterwood Parc). The garden village consists mainly of housing with a school (s) and a community hall (H) on the edge of a large expanse of green at the northern entrance just of the Ninoofsesteenweg an important thoroughfare.

The garden village of Moortebeek is characterised by a very clear and regular layout with parallel streets running of an central elongated green space with an angled connection that alleviates the straightness of the streets. The layout with parallel streets is not Unwinesque but modernist in nature making the most of the sloping terrain and providing a similar aspect for most of the houses. When looking closely at the street layout it is evident that the garden village was originally intended to be larger with the Avenue Shakespeare extended further southwest and have more parallel streets. The layout was changed after WW2 and is more in keeping with what is commonplace in urban design in the 1950s.

The garden village is an intervention on a sloping site between pre-existing old farm roads (in yellow) and the nineteenth century thoroughfare Ninoofsesteenweg (literally: Stone paved road to Ninove - a city in Flanders). Here a number of more or less parallel streets were laid out around a central public garden. This Avenue follows an older road that has been incorporated as a footpath. The northern section also had two large green spaces on the edges.

The garden village now includes 330 family houses in terraces and semidetached houses and 124 apartments in post war blocks of flats. The houses were originally built in three so-called classes - first, second and third class. This system was especially common in the Low Countries and Germany and was probably introduced into Belgium from Germany via the Netherlands. A similar system was utilised by the Model Housing Societies during the Victorian era in England and was used as a way of active community building by managing the social mix of an area.. Third class housing does not mean third rate housing, but signifies the dwellings with the lowest rent aimed at the lowest paid workers. Such houses are often less decorative and smaller that first class housing, especially on the inside. But basic amenities are always included, as such social housing was aimed at improving the living conditions of all the working classes.

Once the garden village was located on higher ground between two brooks (the Broekbeek and Moortebeek) surrounded by fields. These have been since developed and this enclave is now surrounded by high-rises on all sides. The whole ensemble is in good condition and recent restoration work has made the houses look almost new in some places.