Dallas , Belgium

Particularly after the Second World War, housing estates sprouted like mushrooms from the Belgian clay soil.

In the 1950s, working-class neighborhoods were built with traditional brick family homes, though occasionally high-rise neighborhoods were also constructed. From the 1960s, low-rise neighborhoods followed, while in the 1970s, residential areas were introduced in the city centers. After that, it was mainly the typical Flemish ‘parcelling’.

In each case, these residential areas, mainly due to their short construction period, were islands of uniformity and mono-functionality, with a socially homogeneous population, in the eclectic and fragmented Belgian urban landscape.

The architecture of these housing estates is everyday and inconspicuous.

However, some housing estates were given a foreign nickname: Siberia, Dallas, Korea, Jerusalem, Russia, Monaco, Cuba and even Guantanamo.

The residents thus claimed their own identity. Or they criticized the banal appearance or social problems of the neighborhood with their chosen identity.

I have respectfully photographed this mediocre Belgian architecture with a rebellious foreign nickname. I wanted to give dignity to these housing estates by revealing, rather than hiding, their mediocrity. In this series, I therefore used the same approach to photograph an modest row house or a classic detached house as if I were photographing an architectural masterpiece by Le Corbusier or Gaudi.

As a tribute to the absurdity of the everyday.

Because the everyday in itself already has an astonishing aesthetic richness.