L'exemple belge: l'habitat privé, la maison individuelle l'emportent sur l'habitat collectif

The policy of social regulation carried out in Belgium by state authorities dominated by the Catholic Party led to give precedence to individual accession to home-ownership, with a clear emphasis put the little one-family house with garden. The publicly-developed social tenements with their wide regional variations, is thus a far more marginal phenomenon than in other countries of the north of the continent. However, Social-Democracy, which chose this type of housing as one of its major aims, tried to promote these quality tenements to boost collective living. The lack of means, often at the local level, and the lack of political unanimity account for the general weakness of this sector. At the end of the day, only the housing cooperatives created by the associative movement after WWI responded to the strict definition of collective habitat (with collective equipment, social and associative life) built to last.SCOPUS: ar.j