Maison C.E.C.A.

The C.E.C.A. house (French: Maison C.E.C.A., Dutch: EGKS-woning) was an experimental prefabricated workers' house developed in Belgium in 1954 by two Belgian architects Willy Van Der Meeren and Léon Palm. They designed a standardized model of a minimum dwelling for working-class families that could be constructed fast, at low cost, through the use of prefabricated elements in the context of post-war housing shortages and the social ambitions associated with the European Coal and Steel Community. A prototype was exhibited in 1954 at the sixth International Fair of Liège and later that year at the International Technical and Industrial Exhibition in Charleroi. It was promoted as a fully equipped modern house using standardised construction and economical materials. Although the concept initially attracted the interest of some 4,500 potential buyers, the project did not enter serial production and only ten houses were ultimately built. In addition to eight C.E.C.A. houses in Tervuren, one C.E.C.A. house was built in Ohain and another in Leuven. Its principal realised form was a group of eight related houses at Vierwindenbinnenhof (French: Clos des Quatre Vents) in Tervuren, including Van Der Meeren's own house. His later projects, including Ieder Zijn Huis in Evere, continued his interest in social housing and prefabricated construction.