Functionalist architecture in Belgium

Functionalist architecture is the style that dominates architecture in Belgium during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, alongside monumental architecture.

Heir and continuator of Modernism in Belgium, this style is much criticized for the impact of its cold and unadorned towers on the urban landscape but it has nevertheless given a series of low-rise buildings (high -rise buildings) of quality like the Head office of the Lambert Bank, the head office of Glaverbel, the headquarters of the CBR (Cimenteries Belges Réunies), the headquarters of the Royal Belgian, the marsh building of the CGER (General Savings and Retirement Fund), the headquarters of Hewlett -Packard, the “Louise / Claus” building or the first SWIFT headquarters in La Hulpe.

During the 1990s and 2000s, some of the high-rise buildings (” high-rise buildings”), considered unattractive, were updated and adorned with postmodern finery.

History
Origins
During the 1930s, architecture in Belgium was dominated by four styles : Art Deco, Modernist Architecture, Monumental Architecture and Beaux Arts.

At the end of the Second World War, Art Deco and the Beaux-Arts style fade to leave the field free to modernism that mutates and generates functionalism : ” It will be necessary to wait for the change of scale introduced by the reconstruction and the equipment of the country after the Second World War for the modernism imposes by its only economic aspect. But it will then apply to large ensembles and large-scale operations that will reveal its inhumanity and make it lose its poetic dimension “.

In the margins of functionalism, we note the survival of the monumental architecture which, after having developed throughout the 1930s and having come to a standstill due to the Second World War, resumes from 1948 to have a second boom in the 1950s in the field of official architecture.

Apogee
Throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, functionalism reigned supreme and covered the Belgian cities with buildings with offices or dwellings (like the Etrimo buildings).

In Brussels, a series of high-rise buildings such as the World Trade Center towers, the Rogier International Center (Martini center), the Botanic Building, the IBM tower, the Madou tower and the Astro tower are emerging., the finance tower, the Manhattan Center, the National Lottery Tower, the AG Tower, the Hilton Hotel, the Tour du Midi, all inextricably linked to the concept of ” Brussels “, this degradation of the city and the setting of life of its inhabitants due to the action of real estate developers, which destroys the North District, razed in the 1960s by the real estate developer Charlie de Pauw who dreamed of erecting a small Manhattan, and destroyed the House of the People of Victor Horta, replaced by a tower without a mockery called ‘Blaton Tower’, named after the builder who erected it.

At the same time, however, a series of low-rise buildings with a more refined architecture is emerging, such as the headquarters of Banque Lambert (now Banque Bruxelles Lambert or BBL, later absorbed by ING).), the headquarters of Glaverbel, the headquarters of the CBR (Chaussée de la Hulpe 185), the headquarters of the Royal Belgian, the CGRS Marais building, the headquarters of Hewlett-Packard (Boulevard de la Woluwe No. 100 and its neighbor no. 102), the Courthouse of Charleroi or the first SWIFT headquarters in la Hulpe.

The end of functionalism
A radical reaction to functionalism appeared in the late 1970s in the form of postmodernism that aims to bring beauty back to the city.

Architecture is not only turning its back on functionalism, but many Brussels skyscrapers have been transformed into a postmodern style during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, that is, simply “revamped” (like the tower). du Midi and the finance tower transformed by Michel Jaspers, the Madou tower renovated by the ASSAR architects’ office, the Botanic Building restored by the Architecture Workshop of Genval or the AG tower modified by Artepolis, that they be razed and rebuilt like the Rogier International Center (Michel Jaspers) or the National Lottery Tower (Central Plaza).

On the other hand, the low-rise buildings, with generally more careful architecture, have been almost all preserved.

Never has any architectural style been sanctioned so strongly and quickly.

Typology
Office buildings
Skyscrapers (High-rise buildings)
The most important group of buildings in terms of impact on urban planning is of course the skyscrapers with offices such as the World Trade Center towers, the tower of the Midi, the Rogier International Center (Martini center), the Botanic Building, the IBM Tower, the Madou Tower, the Astro Tower, the Finance Tower, the AG Tower, the Philips Tower and the Administrative Center of the City of Brussels.

Coming after the deconstruction of the center of Brussels by the vault of the Senne in the nineteenth century, after bleeding caused by the huge construction site of the North-Midi rail junction and after the destruction of the North District by the developer Charlie De Pauw These iron, glass and concrete towers, without soul or style, are a new blow to Brussels urbanism.

In the middle of this stylistic desert, we can only underline the role of forerunner of Henri Montois who, although having committed with the Botanic Building one of the worst buildings of the functionalist period, already announces in 1976 the postmodern blue glass towers of the 1990s and 2000 with the “Blue Tower” Avenue Louise (formerly “tour SAIFI”), a tower that “appears as clearly different from other skyscrapers in Brussels”

Low-rise buildings
If there is little to say about the style of functionalist skyscrapers, it is quite the opposite of “Low-rise buildings” which present a neat architecture which postmodernism was careful not to touch.

We can distinguish here several types of “Low-rise buildings”:

a first type consisting of buildings whose facades are made of white concrete elements with a repetitive structure, such as the headquarters of Banque Lambert (Bunshaft), the headquarters of CBR (Brodzki, Lambrichs), the first headquarters of SWIFT at La Hulpe (Brodzki), the CGRS marsh building (Lambrichs), the Crédit Communal and Passage 44 (Lambrichs) building, the Rectorate of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Braem) 4 and the Hewlett head office -Packard at the Woluwe Boulevard (Demeester);

a second type consisting of buildings with a profoundly innovative architecture such as the headquarters of Glaverbel, a circular building combining natural stone and glass designed by Braem, Guillissen, Jacqmain and Mulpas, or as the headquarters of the Royal Belgian, a cruciform building designed by Dufau and Stapels 6 and with a Corten steel structure;

a third type, the low-rise buildings in blue glass, type represented by the building “Louise / Claus” built in 1974 by Henri Montois who, by this timeless building, announces here also postmodernism and its buildings blue glass like the “North Gate I, II and II” of the Architecture Workshop of Genval ;

and finally, a fourth type, consisting of buildings with brown metal cladding, such as the headquarters of Générale de Banque (Guillissen, Van Kuyck, Housiaux, Jean Polak) or the “Tiberghien” building of the CGER (Lambrichs). ; these types of very dark buildings will not cross the threshold of the second decade of the 21st century since the “Tiberghien” and the headquarters of Générale de Banque were demolished in 2013 and in 2016 respectively; note that this destruction is not caused by the postmodern wave but, on the one hand, by the sale by BNP Paribas of part of the real estate inherited from the CGER and, on the other hand, by the reconstruction of the headquarters of the General de Banque, not in conformity with the prescribed urbanistic because visible since the park of Brussels.

Hotels
Some hotels were built during the functionalism era.

Once again, we will highlight the quality of the work of Henri Montois who, with the Hilton Hotel in Brussels, signs a realization that stands out from the whole from functionalist production through the use of stone all the way up. the south facade, facing Boulevard de Waterloo. Moreover, “As in many projects designed by Henri Montois, the hotel is adorned with works of art by international artists such as Vic Gentils, Jean-Pierre Ghijsels, Emile Souply and Victor Vasarely, among many others”.

In this category, there is the former Westbury Hotel (Robert Goffaux), which later became the National Lottery Tower, and the Manhattan Center (Structures Group), which combines the hotel function (Sheraton) and offices.

Housing
The functionalist era saw a large number of low-cost housing buildings flourish.

Alongside the Residence Brusilia, designed by the architect Jacques Cuisinier, we can cite the countless achievements of companies such as Etrimo (“Society of Studies and Realizations Realizations in Favor of the Middle Classes”, founded by the modernist architect and Art Deco Jean-Florian Collin) or Amelinckx, including the Residence Nord tower.

But it will also include blocks of social housing in the center of Brussels such as the blocks “rue des Potiers” and “Rempart des Moines”.

University buildings and hospitals
We will end this overview of the different types of functionalist buildings by university buildings and hospitals built in the late 1960s and during the 1970s.

University buildings
Henri Montois : Faculty of Medicine of the Catholic University of Louvain at Woluwe – Saint – Lambert, Faculty of Medicine of the ULB and Faculty of Sciences of the ULB in Brussels;
André Jacqmain : Place des Sciences and Library of Sciences in Louvain-la-Neuve (1970), where the “raw concrete” aspect triumphs;
Renaat Braem : Rectorate of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB, 1978).

hospitals
Henri Montois : Saint-Luc Hospital (Woluwe-Saint-Lambert), Hospital Center of the Citadel in Liège.

Functionalist architects and their main achievements
Here is the list of Belgian functionalist architects, chronologically classified according to the beginning of their functionalist production, with their most outstanding achievements.

It should be noted that the functionalist era is marked, more than any other period of architecture in Belgium, by collaborations between architects.

Functional buildings transformed in the postmodern era
As mentioned above, several functionalist buildings were either transformed into postmodern style, or demolished and rebuilt in this style.

The Régent 44 building (boulevard du Régent 44 in Brussels) is an excellent example of the postmodern approach. The original building (architect P. Eenens, 1966) had a very ordinary facade of concrete and glass. The architecture office Henri Montois dressed this facade of blue glass and polished granite and punctuated it with polished granite pilasters decorated at the base with rudentures (grooves) and at the top, ornaments in metal evoking capitals), reintroducing as follows:

the reference to styles of the past that had been abolished by functionalism (pilasters, rudentures and capitals inherited from Greco-Roman architecture through pre-Romanesque, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Classical, Baroque, Neoclassical and Art Deco architectures) ;
ornaments;

natural stone generally banned by functionalist architecture (except for the headquarters of Glaverbel and the Hilton);

beauty, resulting from the combination of blue glass, polished granite and ornaments.
We present below the most striking of these transformations, with the possible new name of the building as well as the name of the architect or the postmodern architects’ office which ensured its transformation:

Source From Wikipedia