Urban has long paid particular attention to contemporary heritage.
The online publication of the thematic inventory of Brussels' architectural heritage built between 1939 and 1999 therefore constitutes a major step forward for Urban's teams in complementing the existing inventory of our architectural heritage.
Most of the potential heritage from this period is to be found in the municipalities of the first and second belt surrounding the city centre. This is because they underwent an architectural transformation starting in the interbellum period or even only after the Second World War. Thus the following municipalities have been subjected to a prospection: Laeken, Neder-over-Heembeek, Haren, Evere, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre and Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, Auderghem, Watermael-Boitsfort, Uccle, Anderlecht, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Jette, Ganshoren and Berchem Saint-Agathe.
All these buildings were registered and photographed, after which a selection was carried out on the basis of the architectural heritage criteria relevant to the 1939-1999 period.
This has resulted in the publication of information sheets concerning as many as 1.700 (blocks of) buildings, that provide information on the typology, the architectural style or period, the date of construction as well as the criteria on the basis of which they have been registered in the inventory.
So we are in presence of an urgent visual inventory which can be used in order to gain a clear insight into this lively architectural period. Furthermore it can serve as a groundwork for various policy choices.
In addition to the many examples of residential architecture in the form of single-family dwellings, and more particularly large-scale apartment blocks often surrounded by parklands, the presence of new specific typologies and/or architectural programmes such as ambitious office buildings, whether using new materials and/or construction techniques or not, is striking. But also shopping-arcades, industrial buildings, campuses, hospitals, cultural centres, sports infrastructure or international institutions’ buildings stand out in this inventory, which continuously highlights the connection between architecture and art.
