Mining colonies: shifting vernacular references, Zwartberg

Similar to neighbouring Waterschei we see varying building styles used in Zwartberg, but always with a strong vernacular influence. Again this starts with a dominance of the Walloon vernacular, passes through an English cottage phase and ends with Flemish brick vernacular.

The St Albertusschool houses a kindergarten, primary school, a catholic youth club, a special needs school and activity centre for people with disabilities. It has a cloister-like floor plan with two long wings extending from the decorative and imposing front around an inner courtyard. Originally each wing was assigned to either girls or boys with a kindergarten at the front and primary schools in either wing.

The now disused railway between Genk Winterslag and As separates the Cité Nord from the Cité Sud. The St Albertuskerk is a so-called mine cathedral, a large church built for the miners and commissioned by the Zwartberg colliery. Together with the neighbouring school it forms the heart of the mining colony.

 

Next to the school complex we find a row of old workers housing (dating from around 1915). Each building encompasses four dwellings under an expressive roof. The dark brick used makes for a rather understated building.

The post-war buildings are in the same style but are whitewashed as can be seen around the Delcourplaats (left). These buildings date from around 1919. North of the second building phase is a uniform building phase (around 1925) consisting of short terraces with lowered corners giving the impression of smaller scale housing. The buildings in this style consist mainly of 4 dwellings, sometimes 5 dwellings and seldom 2 or 6 dwellings.

These houses are uniformly placed behind the third building phase along a  grid parallel to the Torenlaan. They are built in a brick vernacular with some ornamental detailing. These terraces are larger and typically consist of 8 dwellings.

In contrast to the brick buildings a small number of cottage style inspired buildings were erected around 1922. They can be found around the Cockerillplaats and Felix Despastraat.

The eastern extension of the Cité Nord at Zwartberg consists of rows of identical brick buildings with little ornamentation except for a brick trim around the front doors. Each short terrace comprises of four dwellings and has a characteristic hipped roof.

The oldest buildings in the Cité Sud (1914) are built in a distinctly Walloon vernacular architecture. They are said to date from about the same time as the row of terraced houses east of the Torenlaan in the Cité Nord. These buildings however have a similar architectural expression as the post-war buildings in the Cité Sud (see below) built around 1919 with brick facades and ornamental brick detailing. This makes me doubt the early attribution of the Cité Nord buildings.

The oldest buildings in the Cité Sud are not dissimilar to the buildings around the IJzerstraat in the Cité Nord but more ornamental with horizontal banding and varying roof shapes. The buildings are placed on an orthogonal grid around small public spaces that were (and are) laid out as public gardens and play grounds.

Subsequent additions to the Cité Sud show a simplification of the architecture and a shift towards brick vernacular. The interwar period started with brick ornamentation on gable ends during the 1920s (left) and ended with simplified brick vernacular. In the 1930s extension on the west side of the Cité Sud we see brick architecture with hipped roofs in short terraces not dissimilar to the buildings of the same period in the Cité Nord.

The rows of terraces added to the Cité Sud in the early 1950s fit wonderfully well in terms of their architecture, but as the blocks don't follow the orthogonal placement of the Cité Sud they stand out very much.  

On the north side much of the original buildings have been replaced. Mostly these new buildings date from the 1980s (shown on the left) and differ greatly in style. The brick used in the two apartment buildings from the 1960s (on the right) fits in much better with the surrounding buildings.

The latest addition to the Cité Sud picks up the idea of the cottage style with mock beams and plaster infill on the elevation above a brick ground floor. These buildings fit well, but add a style that is commonly associated with these mining colonies, but only really present in the Cité Nord.

Mining colonies: Cité Nord des Liégeois, Zwartberg

The Noorder Tuinwijk or Cité Nord is located directly to the north of the Cité Sud, hence the name. The two mining colonies of Zwartberg are separated by the now disused railway track linking the collieries at Winterslag and Waterschei. Most of the Cité Nord lies north of the colliery grid parallel to the Torenlaan (before WW2 named Patience et Beaujoncstraat, after the mine of the same name near Liège). All streets in the northern mining colony were named after Walloon figures (mostly directors at the Cockerill company). Exceptions are the IJzerstraat (commemorating the Battle of the Yser in 1914) and the Martelarenstraat (literally: Martyrs Street, a name also linked to WW1)The street now called Socialestraat (Social Street) was once named after another mine in Liège Espérance et Bonne Fortunestraat). Street names commemorating the Great War (or the peache that followed) were very common in 1919 and 1920. This gives us a clue to the time of completion or at least the time this part of the Cité Nord was conceived.

The Cité Nord consists of two distinct parts that explore very different ideas on the layout of streets and the placement of houses on the streets. The southern part of the colony consist of a semi-circular loop that links two distinct parts on each side of the Torenlaan (T). Each part has a large circular space at the heart of the urban composition. On the east side this is circular square -Delcourplaats (Dp), named after a famous sculptor of fountains-  and on the west side we see a large green oval with a public garden and playground called Cockerillplaats (Cp, named after the industrialist John Cockerill). In this southern part no streets are perfectly straight. It is also at this point that the bend in the Torenlaan is absorbed into the urban morphology. All in all a layout that is recognizable as inspired by the garden city movement. The streets in the northern part of the colony Cité Nord run more or less parallel to the Torenlaan giving it a much more formal appearance. There is a thrid oval (O) this time on the Torenlaan. To the south we find the school (S) dating from 1926-'28 and an imposing church (C). This St Albertus Kerk (1937) is a so-called Mine Cathedral and was designed by Henry Lacoste, who also drew the plans for the church at Beringen-Mijn.

Both the northern and southern colony at Zwartberg are designated as heritage sites. A description of both can be found online. Sadly not all that is written down rings true. The portion of the Cité Nord around the Delcourplaats is said to date from 1915, the portion around the Torenlaan and Romeplaats from the 1920s, the portion along the IJzerstraat from after 1930 and the portion around the Martelarenstraat would be of an even more recent date. The western portion around the Cockerillplaats is said to be a copy of the Cité Jarding Seraing, commissioned by the Cockerill company.

In the northern portion of the CIté Nord at Zwartberg we can see a grid parallel to the Torenlaan. This Torenlaan was a new thoroughfare that replaced the old road on Meeuwen which had become interrupted by the colliery and the storage and settling basins that stored the  waste water from the mine. The spoil heap (mijnterril) lies directly north of the Cité Nord in a bend in the Torenlaan/Weg naar Zwartbroek.

Any comparison to the Cité Jarding at Seraing is probably based on the large oval public garden. The Garden City in Seraing (an industrial suburb of Liège), as morphologically they are worlds apart. The whole of the southern part is clearly garden city inspired (like the Cité Jardin at Seraing) which places its conception somewhere after 1919. If perhaps it has been based on the Cité Jardin Seraing a date after 1922-23 should be maintained. 1915 is too early. Although the houses along the Torenlaan could be that early, and thus point towards a planned urbanization along the lines of the colliery grid like the Cité Sud. The church and school directly south of the Cité Nord do conform to the colliery grid after all. The area around the large oval square in the Torenlaan still follows the same morphological premise. Indeed the buildings are similar to the ones on the north side of the western portion.

Most of the Cité Nord is built over with short terraces of workers housing. In the western portion larger semidetached houses and semidetached villas were built around the Cockerillplaats. This is also the portion of the Cité Nord where we find English inspired architecture with mock beams adorning gable ends. The rest of the mining colony was filled with progressively less expressive brick architecture. 

The mining colony north of the railway grew over a period of a few decades It marks the shift from an orthogonal to a sweeping arrangement of dwellings and the return to maximized parceling around 1930.

Mining colonies: Cité Sud des Liégeois, Zwartberg

When the mining concession to the west of As was granted in 1906 the concession holders, much like the group of the mining concession to the south of As, first sought to build their colliery within the boundaries of that village. The village council of As denied these requests for fear of urbanization, change to their way of life and an influx of strangers. As a result of this a site already owned by one of the participants in the mining company Société Anonyme Charbonnages des Liégeois en Campine was quickly secured for the construction of a colliery. The site also lay close to the country estates of two other company owners Eikenberg (Oak Hill in Dutch) and Luciebois (Lucy's Wood in French). The terrain was covered in heathland with some small land dunes of which the Zwarte Berg was one of the highest (80 m).  A straight thoroughfare ran across the marshy heath connecting Genk via Winterslag to Meeuwen in the north.

The work started in 1909 with the construction of a railway connecting the site to the Hasselt - Maaseik railway line and the first colliery buildings needed for sinking the pits (such as a cement factory, a chemical plant, a pump house and a metals workshop. All these buildings were situated on a grid that ran at a 90 degree angle of the old thoroughfare. This grid also dictates the first on-site residential buildings and can still be recognized in the Cité Sud des Liégeois (after 1932 the Dutch Zuiderwijk Zwartberg is used) and part of the Cité Nord des Liégeois.

The old grid projected onto the present layout of streets of the two garden villages (north and south) and the golden trim of villas directly next to the colliery site. The villas follow the colliery grid. The garden villages are on a slightly different grid along the old thoroughfare (shown in yellow). Even the extension of the neighbouring Waterschei garden suburb conforms to this grid. Also the new thoroughfare (shown in deep red) is part of this grid.

The first housing at the Zwartberg site was constructed in 1914-15 south of the railway and next to the colliery. It consisted of a large villa for the managing director to the west and a row of large villas parallel to the railway and colliery. The executive villa was built near the source of the Roosterbeek (literally: Brook of Reeds). East of the old thoroughfare workers housing was constructed around small green squares in a orthogonal layout. The Great War halts further construction. This is picked up again in 1919. But by this time the ideas on workers housing have shifted towards the garden city ideals (although this is mostly limited to the layout of streets, placement of buildings and building style).

The Nationale Maatschappij voor Goedkopen Woningen en Woonvertrekken (National Society for Affordable Houses and Lodgings) was founded by the Belgian state in 1919 with the aim to alleviate the acute shortage of living accommodation in post-war Belgium. The society concentrated its work in urbanized areas and had a role in coordinating, controlling and (co)financing the construction of family homes for both rental and sale. Projects were carried out by local building societies and private building firms. For factory housing industrialist founded building societies to be eligible for subsidies from central government. This meant though that the national society could greatly influence the type of houses that were to be built, and how they were to be situated. From the moment the National society for Affordable Housing is directing house building we see a shift towards the garden city esthetic and layout. The marked differences between the Cité Sud and Cité Nord at Zwartberg are testament to this.

The Cité Sud was built in several building campaigns. All parts differ in building style. The placement of the housing blocks is similar through the decades though. The first part of the garden village was constructed in 1914-15 around small green squares. The extension built between 1925 and 1930 is similar but the buildings are much more sober in detailing and less Walloon in style. This extension is built on either side of a formal axis terminating in a large round square. At the same time the railway was extended towards Winterslag. This arc cuts through the old grid. In 1947 the houses along the western edge were built. In the 1960s an apartment building was constructed on what looks to have been a green square. In de the 1980s new rows of terraces are built (replacing older buildings) that differ greatly in appearance, but follow the orthogonal placement in this mining colony. Recently a former factory building has been replaced with short terraces that are sympathetic to the old miners housing.

The Cité Sud is only a small portion of the total urbanized area on the south side of the Zwartberg colliery. The former mining seat (M) has been transformed into the Industrial Zone Genk Noord and all building have been torn down, except for the old offices (O) that now house the police academy. A double avenue flanks the now removed old railway track. On the south side of it villas dating from the 1920s. The avenue terminates at the executive villa (E) where a small commercial district (C) had sprung up. South of this cluster of shops a large open air velodrome (V) was constructed in 1932. It was closed in 1966 and the site was developed for housing in the 1970s. Next to the Cité Sud a large complex De Drie Linden was built housing a school (S) and a care centre for (elderly) people with learning difficulties (cc).

Mining colonies: Les Liégeois Zwartberg

As a result of the successful exploratory drilling in As by André Dumont in 1901 several mining concessions were granted in 1906 by the Belgian state with the aim of exploiting the Campine coal basin. The mining concession Les Liégeois (literally: them from the city of Liége) was granted to a consortium of the Cockerill company, two mines from Liége (Espérance et Bonne Fortune and Patience et Beaujonc) and three local landowners (Théodore Masy, director of three Walloon mines, the industrialist Wittouck and lieutenant general Emile Thorn). The new mining company was named Société Anonyme Charbonnages des Liégeois en Campine. The company name chosen makes quite clear in no uncertain terms who was in charge in exploiting the coal in this part of Belgium.

At first the plan was to found the colliery in the village of As. The village council decided against this and so the mining operation was transferred to a site on the heath between Hengelhoef and Waterschei where during the nineteenth century the Cockerill company had tested its cannons and steel gun cupolas. This testing ground lay near an 80 m high hill known as the Zwarte Berg (literally: Black mountain). This hill would later name both the mine and the mining colony. Until the 1920s though, both mine and colony would be known under its French name as Les Liégeois.

Work on the colliery buildings started in 1910, as did the sinking of two pits. In 1909 a railwaytrack had been laid to link the site via the neighbouring mine at Waterschei to the regional railway Hasselt - Maaseik at As. The first housing for workers was also built in As. The company had bought land here when they had planned their mining seat at As. This Cité Cockerill , constructed around 1910, consisted of 36 houses and no longer exists.

Right from the onset the mining company had to contend with an enormous shortage of potential workers. The scarce inhabitants were scattered around small hamlets and also lacked the skills needed. Employing and housing people from elsewhere was part of planning the mining activities at Zwartberg. Technical staff and engineers were brought in from Wallonia. The rest of the workforce was found in the rest of the Campine region (both in Belgium and the Netherlands) as well as Germany and Poland.

Around 1915 work started on building housing near the colliery. Both a large villa for the mines executive and villas for the engineers were erected directly south of the colliery site. South of the railway housing for the workers was built in the Cité Sud or Zuiderwijk. After 1919 work on the Cité Nord or Noorderwijk was started. At the same time the Cité Sud was completed.

A schematic drawing of the Zwartberg suburb that is located in both Genk and Houthalen.

The colliery with its trim of villas and two mining colonies only makes up a small portion of the urbanized area. The mine was located near two large estates owned by the aforementioned T. Masy and E. Thorn. On another large landholding the suburb of Houthalen-Oost was developed after WW2. Over the course of several decades small and medium sized housing estates were built adjacent to the mining colony. These mining colonies have been dwarfed by the later developed suburban area.

The urbanized area around Zwartberg now consists of several suburban developments and housing estates including the old mining colonies Cité Sud (2) and Cité Nord (3). Next to these we find the former colliery site now a business park (1) and the strip of villas (4).To the north we find the Luciebois (5) and Eikenberg (6) estates. At the edge of these large estates we find the former storage and settling tanks (7) for the waste water and the old spoil heap (8) of the mine. On the Park van Genk estate in Houthalen Houthalen-Oost (9) was developed, later expanded with the Hutte estate (10) and Nieuw Limburg estate (11). The area around Peerdsmeer (12) was also built over. Next to the Cité Sud the Nieuw Driehuizen estate (13) and Hoevenzavel estate (15) were built. On the site of the former velodrome the Hengelhoef-Noord estate (14) was built.