HOUSING SHORTAGE HISTORICAL OVERVIEW At the beginning of the 20th century, the largest steel company in the world, ARBED, was formed in Luxembourg. However, the need to house the thousands of workers presented the company with a major dilemma. The result, the logements or “workers housing,” made a permanent impact on the city of Esch-sur-Alzette. To this day, one can still see the impacts of this construction. Through an analysis of building blueprints and images from the time and contemporary interviews and photos, we have attempted to show how these logements not only provided a place to live for ARBED employers, but also transmitted its hierarchy from the factory to the rest of the city.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT 10
also The rising of the Luxembourg steel industry during the second half of the 19th century was made possible by the interaction of five major conditions: the overall implementation at an industrial level of the steam engine, the rediscovery of “minette” iron core, the construction
