On Common Ground? The Construction of New Collective Spaces in Flanders, 1950s to 1970s (Bouwen aan de welvaartsstaat. De ontwikkeling van collectieve voorzieningen in naoorlogs Vlaanderen)

Starting from the early 1950s until the late 1970s, a multitude of new collective spaces, such as cultural centres, swimming pools, sports halls, community centres, vacation villages, holiday resorts, leisure parks ... were constructed across (Western) Europe, many of which were built with public funds. Also in Belgium hundreds of new ‘public’ leisure facilities were built in the decades following the Second World War. The welfare state thus established itself not only in the realm of housing, infrastructure development, health care and education, but also in the domain of leisure. Although in recent years there has been a growing attention for the postwar welfare state from different disciplines (including architectural culture), the new kinds of collective spaces that were established in this era have not yet been thoroughly investigated from a perspective that links spatial - and socio-historical analyses. This study therefore combines architectural history with social geography, political history and cultural studies to investigate the reciprocity between planning, architecture and cultural policies in Flanders on the one hand and the relation between the newly developed spatial formations for leisure and their users on the other. By untangling the interplay that occurred between architects, politicians, administrators, citizens and all others who had a stake in the construction of these facilities, this dissertation explores the rationalities that underpinned postwar building programmes for leisure in Flanders and conveys an understanding of how these facilities influenced the transformation of the public realm.status: publishe