ZebraStraat Website

Historische schets

De Zebrastraat te Gent.
Een Sociaal Huisvestingsproject van voor W.O.I

The Zebra-Street in Ghent.
A Prewar (Worldwar I) Social Housing Project

Van de Steene Luc. Juni 1983

The social housing project in the Zebra-Street, the so-called “the Cirk”

Description of the project

In 1906 the Association bought a land of 4145 m² from the “Société immobilière gantoise”, situated in the old Muinkmeersen. The purchase price was already 17 francs/m². Because of this, it was decided to erect a big whole of buildings with several floors in a form that approximates a circle, with a big inner courtyard and with a number of separate dwellings on each floor.

This block, which still exists with an entrance in the Zebra-Street, is one of the most remarkable realisations in the social house building in Belgium at the beginning of the 20^th century.

At the beginning, the block (cost price: 217 960 BF) included 13 houses, of which two houses along the Zebra-Street were fitted up as shops. In the middle of these houses there is a large courtyard, upon which 8 separate houses and 10 premises with 2 dwellings per floor (60 dwellings in all) look out. Together with the front- and back-houses this block consists of 83 housing facilities in all.

The 13 front-houses in the Zebra-Street and the 8 simular houses on the left and on the right of the entrance are intended for more prosperous workmen. These houses have a simular plan and we can compare them with the Wilgen-Street. All these buildings consist of a ground floor and two upper floors. The dwellings are provided with a living-room, a kitchen, a small space behind the kitchen and a yard. There are 4 bedrooms on the floors.

The 60 “appartments” each had the necessary sunlight, due to the shape of the courtyard.

For the families there were every time: three livingrooms of 3 to 3.5 m wide and 4 to 4.7 m long, a small kitchen with a gas-cooker, a balcony-terrace intended to do the washing, a toilet, a cole-house and a rubbish-chute. Every dwelling was provided with municipal water and rain-water under pressure.

This complex was festively inaugurated on the 20^th of September 1908.

It has been tried to give the buildings a cheerful outlook by the use of red and yellow bricks, by the use of freestone steps, by the bay-loggias and by adorning the windows of the two floors with flowers and drooping green.

Discussion of the project

It is important to mention that the project is situated inside the walls of the 16^th century. This is rather an exception if we look at the spreading of the percentage of the social dwellings built before 1945.

The most important cause is the price of the land, it is too high to use the land for social housing unless dwellings for several families are built. This was discussed in the council meeting of the 18 September 1809 (ref. 5) by Mister Anseele.

“I think that the Association of the workmen’s dwellings takes up a false position. It accepts that no land that has a higher value than 10 BF a meter, may be bought. If it goes on to accept this, it will often miss the occasion to build good workmen’s dwellings. In this way it will never have houses at the disposition of the working-classes in the middle of the town or near by. Nevertheless, there are workmen who have to live in the middle of the town. I hope that the town will examine which houses our friends of Schaarbeek have built. As a matter of fact, the type of dwellings is accepted there by everyone. It seems to me that a solution will be found here for the difficulty to have houses in the middle of the town. In the houses which I am talking about, the ground floor can be used for a shop. People who belong to a certain class, who are not really workmen, can live on the first floor. The more the class of the inhabitants declines, the higher they climb.”
The oval-shaped courtyard is quite conspicious here, certainly when the complex is compared with that in the neighbourhood. The block of houses of the Lousberghs factory’s labourers is meant here. (Alpaca-Street - Langhals-Street 1906).

But why has the courtyard that shape? Because of the circular courtyard the individual houses are related to one another as it were.

We can say that the typology of the blind alley cottages has been used (cfr. The Goudemster-Street), perhaps to make the ordinary man accept the quarter more easily. He has succeeded in it if we look at the newspapers and the waiting-lists t rent a house.

It also gives evidence of a conformed plan. This can be explained by his interest in the classical architecture. On the other hand, it was important that the workmen’s dwellings fitted in the civil quarter.

In the design we can also find the 3 aims of Andries, namely: hygiene, relative isolation and the possibility to control. He realized the first aim by placing a rubbish-chute and an own toilet. Nevertheless, the idea of the cottages seems to exist still when he uses very small yards among the dwellings.

On the other hand, M. Baertsoen writes: "The circular form of this yard permits the sun, during its daily course, to light and to warm all houses successively: all these houses are clear, well-lit and provided with air-holes. In this way, all dwellings have a special entrance, as well on the floors as on the ground floors, which isolates them totally from the other dwellings and from the block. Interference among the different families that live in such houses is impossible. It is also impossible among the families that live in the same workmen’s cottages."
This illustrates the second aim.

The third point, the control, takes us to the “familistère” of Godin. As far as the shape is concerned, the project makes us think of it and a few resemblances can be put forward.

Godin aimed at building a palace for the labourers and at giving them a copious environment. At the same time he wanted to arrive at a different architecture via ethical worths, to educate the labourers via moral worhts and to create social connections. That is why he introduced a severe social control, which is also found here.

From that point of view, we may say that Van Rysselberghe, to a certain degree, has recalled the conception “living” as far as the contents are concerned, which is, for example, not the case with the Wilgen-Street. In the Zebra-Street dwelling has a significance as a participation to the society’s life, as in the cottages, however miserable the living-circumstances were.

The differences of the rent were quite big, according to the place in the complex:

For the houses in the Zebrastraat: 7 or 8 BF a week
For the houses in the courtyard: 5 or 5.5 BF a week
For the apartments on the ground floor: 3.75 BF a week
For the apartments on the first floor: 4 BF a week
For the apartments on the second floor: 3 BF a week

These houses can be compared with the rent of other dwellings in town, though the rent could rise up to 20 BF a month for a house with one room downstairs and one room upstairs.

The evolution

In 1930 a 4^th building layer (a third floor) was added to the buildings in the courtyard. In this way another 20 housing facilities were created, by which Van Rysselberghe’s original architectural project was spoilt a little.

In 1961 the interior fitting of the apartments was changed to conform to the modern requirements of living.

Epilogue

Because of Karel Van Rysselberghe’s progressive views, the block of buildings is still fit to live in, which is not the case with other workmen’s quarters.

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