This PhD research project examines the housing crisis in late colonial Congo within the framework of the Belgian “Plan décennal” (1949), which promoted welfare colonialism and modernist housing schemes. While these initiatives—particularly those led by the Office des Cités Africaines—gained international recognition, they often functioned more as propaganda than as effective housing solutions. In practice, the housing crisis was largely outsourced to Congolese inhabitants themselves.
Positioned at the intersection of architectural, urban, and construction history, the project adopts an “architecture from below” perspective. It investigates low-cost housing solutions such as self-build programmes, financial instruments, and prefabrication systems, focusing on the role of often-overlooked actors including skilled and unskilled workers, évolués, and independent craftsmen (artisans libres).