Sociale woningen Rozemaai

The Rozemaai neighbourhood in the north of Antwerp is a good example of social housing. It symbolises the challenges that Flanders faces but for which it is still not entirely prepared. This post-war neighbourhood is the result of a policy that focused on housing large numbers of people. As an assembly of social housing projects, Rozemaai is characterised by a rational sequence of blocks and rows of dwellings, held together only by bare walkways and transverse streets. For Atelier Kempe Thill and RE-ST, who were jointly commissioned to transform two blocks, the only logical choice was a radical change. The concrete construction was stripped of its stairwells, lifts, façades, balustrades and interiors. In this way, the architecture was able to shake off all traces of the dated policy of the 1970s. The architects took account of the needs of today by using elements that are often found in the Netherlands, such as large windows, long balconies and glass balustrades, but which – oddly enough – are still unusual in Flemish social housing construction.

This text is based on the essay of Isabelle Blancke & Jürgen Vandewalle, which has been published in the Flanders Architectural Review N°14. When Attitudes Take Form