The rise of do-it-yourself in Belgium (1965-1985) and the mutual entanglement between construction history and planning history: an exploration

The well-known 1973 children's story "The House of Barbapapa" aptly summarizes the social struggle for the city that characterized many European cities around the 1970s. Rebelling against radical planning policies in which entire neighborhoods were flattened and rebuilt through large-scale, rationalized building practices—obliterating the urban fabric with concrete, aluminum and glass under the guise of modernization—the Barbapapas decided to renovate a charming but dilapidated house in the city all by themselves. The story depicts the dichotomy between economic and social capital, between state and grass-roots urbanism, between technocracy and autogestion, between exchange value and use value, between production and re-production (or maintenance), between professional contracting and amateur DIY, among many other contradictions that were typically addressed at the time. From a construction history perspective, however, a few critical questions arise that are not usually asked in this narrative: where did the Barbapapas get their tools, building materials, as well as technical knowledge and practical skills to renovate an abandoned slum? These are precisely the questions that this paper addresses in the context of Belgium—with a particular focus on the city of Antwerp. By reconstructing some of the material and constructive aspects of DIY neighborhood renovation in Belgium/Antwerp, this paper aims to formulate a number of insights at the intersection between urban planning history and construction history, that help shedding a different light on some of the contradictions mentioned above.