Live.In Vosselaar they want to put an end to the ‘apartmentisation’ on their territory and only provide one house per plot. The Flemish architects denounce that plan. “Short-sighted, local visions can lead to an ill-considered and poor spatial policy. There must be a clear hierarchy to meet current housing needs.”
“In order to realize the construction shift and therefore not take up any extra open space by 2040, we just have to increase the spatial efficiency in the village centers and not do what municipalities such as Vosselaar propose,” says Steven Lannoo, director of NAV, the network organization for architects. with almost 3,000 affiliated offices and more than 6,000 architects.
“If local authorities unilaterally opt for a building freeze, then we will not succeed in meeting current and future housing needs. Such a decision is incomprehensible when you know that the housing shortage is only increasing in Flanders, despite a need for 300,000 extra houses by 2035. Moreover, the demand for more compact homes, collective forms of housing and apartments is increasing due to the reduction in family size. And we must not forget that buying a house weighs more heavily on the family budget than ever before. In Ghent, for example, a referendum on affordable housing was recently forced. That says enough.”
That is why it is important for NAV to build now what is needed in the future and not to get stuck in frames of reference from the past. “Today Flemish policy is too noncommittal and architects and developers are at the mercy of local authorities. As a result, high-quality densification and infill projects threaten to fail due to ignorance, protests, etc.”
“We therefore believe that the autonomy of the municipalities should be reduced and we advocate a clear hierarchy: Flanders, province, local government. In Vosselaar, for example, the new vision memorandum goes against the policy plan of the province of Antwerp. It specifically states that efforts should be made to strengthen the urban village centres, such as in Vosselaar. Qualitative core densification is therefore a must, with attention to the environment, the streetscape, the spatial capacity and with respect for the creative input and design power of architects.”
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