The emergence of a new generation of building products in post-war Belgium. The case of lightweight concrete

During the 1950s and 1960s, the Belgian building market was flooded with new (or improved) building materials and construction techniques. The periodical and technical literature of that time frequently reports on different kinds of lightweight concrete, new types of glazing, insulation materials, prefabricated panels made of wood, cement, asbestos or plastics,... This remarkable increase in the range of available construction materials during the post-war period stands in sharp contrast to present-day knowledge on these materials: this noted discrepancy is all too often corroborated by current renovation practice, falling short of appropriate renovation or restoration strategies.
Besides treating technical and practical aspects of this new generation of building materials (material characteristics and physical properties), this paper will also investigate socio-economic and cultural aspects of these innovations in post-war construction practice: how and why were these materials developed and commercialized in that particular time and space? How was knowledge on these materials disseminated? In which types of buildings or assemblies were they ideally applied? How did the manufacturers propagate these new materials? How did these new materials influence the building practice and the architectural design practice? These questions will be answered by means of a close reading of representative Belgian architectural periodicals of that time (e.g. Bouwen & Wonen, Architecture).

ISBN:978-0-9928751-0-7

Jaar van publicatie:2014

Trefwoorden:post-war, Siporex, Durisol, Durox, Ytong, block, prefabrication, lightweight concrete, gas concrete, La Maison, Architecture, Bouwen & Wonen