Logis & Floréal: two Brussels garden districts
Social housing based on the British model
At Le Logis and Floréal, you will experience a living environment that has captured the imagination for over a century: winding avenues, lush front gardens, and rich vegetation with hundreds of Japanese cherry trees that form a soft pink mist of blossoms around the houses every spring. These garden suburbs in Watermaal-Bosvoorde were created at the request of two tenants' cooperatives from 1921-1922 and were designed by architect Jean-Jules Eggericx in collaboration with urban planner Louis Van der Swaelmen, within the garden city concept that came to Belgium from England at the beginning of the 20th century. In contrast to the more rigid urban grid, everything here seems to have grown organically: undulating terrain, variation in geometry and sightlines, and a fluid symbiosis of buildings and nature.
Zinnia Square and Bosuil Street
Walking through this neighborhood, you immediately notice that Le Logis and Floréal form two separate cooperatives, each with its own character but part of one large whole. In Floréal, the terrain varies greatly, leading to a picturesque variety of views and perspectives, while Le Logis shows more structure and hierarchy in its street layout. Details such as different colors of woodwork—green for Le Logis and yellow for Floréal—subtly highlight the distinction between the neighborhoods. In addition, the street names also point to the difference: residents of one neighborhood live on streets that refer to birds, while in the other neighborhood, references are made to flowers.
Today, Le Logis and Floréal are protected heritage sites and form one of the largest and best-preserved garden suburbs in Europe, with around 1,500 homes on a site covering approximately 80 hectares. The architecture reflects a classic single-family home with sloping roofs and richly decorated facades, in which Eggericx sought to achieve variety within a homogeneous whole. At the same time, there is a lively community life: since 2001, the cooperatives have continued to operate according to cooperative values, with residents participating in the management and maintenance of their environment. During a guided walk, you will discover how the combination of urban planning vision, architectural care, and green design makes Le Logis-Floréal a timeless model for human residential design in the city.
Good to know
This city walk takes place in an urban environment where obstacles such as cobblestones, narrow sidewalks, and level differences cannot always be avoided. Please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.
This walk is a linear walk with a different end point. Don't want to walk back to the starting point? No problem: there is always a public transport stop nearby. At the start, you can agree on the end point with the guide.
Reservation and guide fee. We are exempt from VAT.
