MODERN URBANISM IN LIEGE

This first chapter will give a theoretical and historical background to the rise of modernism in Liège. It will present the state of the city after the Second World War and what were the challenges of the time. Then, this chapter will introduce the different actors who participated in the modernisation of Liège and what were their plans.

Out of the Second World War, the city of Liège had to face many destructions. Almost 10% of the buildings were destroyed, some neighbourhoods were completely torn down, roads were in a terrible state and the bridges were voluntary destroyed to protect the city during the war. The city had to be rebuilt and must repair the damages caused by the war. But Liège faced at the same time some other challenges.

Indeed, the industrial decline changed the landscape of the city. As Liège used to be named the queen of industry by the glory of coal mining industry, the 1929 economic crisis engender the close of several companies in the alluvial plain of Liège. Even if the city remains a good industrial pole, bad work conditions gained the manufactures who were forced to leave the city centre to the urban fringe where the plots are more affordable and wider. All the military institutions in Liège closed (the citadelle, the canons foundry, the armoury) and the Londoz train station that brought life to its neighbourhood is destroyed. The consequence of all this deindustrialisation, a large part of Liégeois lost their employment.

The city centre of Liège also suffered from obsolescence. More than 80% of the city were build before 1918 and most heritage buildings are slowly becoming ruins. As a result, the population lives in low-comfort dwellings sometimes without tap-water access. Some neighbourhoods became slum areas.

Moreover, the access to the centre of Liège is uneasy. The roads are not wide enough for the massive arrival of cars and are congested by tramways and some market places, the river Meuse crossing is by narrow temporary bridges, and the parking areas are missing.

In reaction to the collapsing situation of Liège after WWII, the association named Le Grand Liège founded in 1936 by Georges Truffaut (1901-1942) regained activity. This association was in charge to eradicate the decline that Liège was in and started to build up some reflections and publications on the economic health and urbanism of the city. In the great figures of the association, Jean Lejeune (1914-1979), member then president, was in the main time the public works alderman for the city of Liège. He contributed a lot to the modernisation of the infrastructures of the city. He wrote : “In 1945, out of Second World War, Liège found freedom in its destroyed bridges, its devastated crossroads, its smashed streets and its partly ruined districts. The first concern for the population and the authority was to repair the war damages. However, this wasn’t complete yet that we perceived - in Liège like elsewhere - that if the XVIIIth century city didn’t fit for the XIXth society, the XIXth city stopped responding to the current evolution, governed by the second industrial revolution and the nearfuture requirements.”2

The city authority, launched a policy of major works to rebuild the city such as stimulate the economy but never the less, the will is to become a ‘big regional metropolis’. In deed, Alfred Putzeyes (1908-1976) wrote : “We shouldn’t be afraid to see big, we should’t work with the year 1950 as an objective but with the year 2000 : we will be there in a bit more than fifty years. In the field of landing expansion and urbanism we would never see big enough, we would never have too large limits and projects wide enough”3. This vision, shared by many, is the starting point of a large four years study proposed by the public works ministry was named Preliminary investigation to the master plan of the region of Liège and was realised by the reputed architectural and urbanism office l’Equerre and the university of Liège. It was published in 1959. Despite its remarkable qualities, this plan has never been translated into reality and the consequences are still felt today. This plan suggested among others to increase the territory of Liège to the surrounding communes in order to raise the public finances. The neighbouring municipalities still take advantage to the city infrastructures without paying any tax. But this study became a tool in the modernisation of the city and its major public works.

Together, the public works department and the association Le Grand Liège worked on the same goal : the reconstruction and the raise (economic and cultural) of the city. They were particularly closed because several members of the association became politic figures in Liège. Working as pairs, Le Grand Liège made a lot of studies and presented in 1957 a program of crucial works named Ten works in five years and the public works department focused on a program through the studies of l’Equerre. Later, those two programs will be merged into one big Program for the region of Liège.

The task is huge, and the program regards projects such as different road communications, the reconstruction of several neighbourhoods, the public institutions

(administrations, culture, shopping facilities, school and university) or the public spaces. Those topics were separated in two categories by Jean Lejeune: the urban body and the road arteries.4

First, the urban body constitutes the axis on which the department worked on to stimulate the commercial functions, the rise of the quantity and the comfort of housing, and finally preserve and inherence the main built heritage playing an important role on both intellectual and cultural plan. The commercial areas were located in the heart of the city and the markets were most of the time in the streets causing then many traffic jams and insecurity, but more over, the lack of place in the centre was catastrophic for the good expansion of economy. Then, it has been decided to move the markets out of the city, in Droixhe for example, where the access would be easier and where their is enough room to develop. The housing evolution is a major policy in Liège to increase the population and then, boost the tax but also reduce everyone’s charge. Several industrial abandoned sites were chosen to establish new residential ensembles and build higher. The best example of this policy is the neighbourhood of Droixhe by the group Egau, but less known is the project to build a big ensemble in Londoz with several towers. The project has never been realised because of it’s strategic place to build a shopping mall (Galleries du Londoz, now the Médiacité). For the urban centre, the district opted for the conservation and protection of the historic city aiming to preserve the picturesque landscape of Liège. Big resources are employed to restore the religious and public heritage. Some public functions took place in new buildings to fit the modernisation of the facilities. The Palais

4 In L’avenir de Liège et les travaux publics (1964) and Du passé à l’avenir (1970) des congrès, the Cité administrative and the Chiroux library emerged in this context. Also, almost 11km of pedestrian streets are created in order to preserve the narrow streets and built heritage.

Secondly, the road arteries as defined by Jean Lejeune constitutes the the second axis to modernise Liège. It appears to be a huge challenge to connect Liège to the early European highway network, with the aim to put the city on the map of the big towns. As the XIXth century connected the cities by introducing the train transport, the XXth century would as well connect them with cars and so the Belgian state invested a lot in those highways. On one hand, the connection to this network permitted in the same time to circumvent Liège and relieve the centre form its traffic jams, but it facilitated also the access between Liège and the other Belgian cities. But for the urban actors, it was absurd, as the connection with Europe is now open, to break the circulation inside Liège. The construction of those highways allowed to prioritise the different scaled networks inside the city. The crossing transit of Liege was also redefined : North/South connection would be along the river Meuse and is today considered as boundaries between the city and the river.

West/East connection is more complicated because of the urban fabric. However, two connections to cross the city are realised in the continuity of bridges : the Kennedy bridge with the Maurice Destenay Avenue, the Albert bridge with the direct connection with highway and the Maghin bridge with the connection to the road along the Citadelle hillsides project (but never built).

This huge urbanism program has completely changed the landscape of Liège during the last century and was created to raise the life quality in the city and put it on the map. Most of these major works are created in the modernist period between 1950 and 1980 and do still exist in these present days.