ABSTRACT
In Europe, most of the dwellings constructed in the first three decades after the Second World War were built on large housing estates. These estates were carefully planned and almost always constructed according to a strict urban development plan. The newly emerging neighbourhoods embraced the ideas of an ideal housing area created by the leading architects and urban planners of the time: spacious and attractive apartments (for that time) in multifamily blocks surrounded by large green areas. The estates were frequently planned as self-contained neighbourhoods including schools, shopping and leisure facilities, general practitioners' surgeries and estate centres in which all kinds of activities could be carried out. In most estates, pedestrian areas were separated from car traffic, while through-traffic was redirected around the estate. This was the period in which the ideas of Le Corbusier, who introduced his 'Ville-Radieuse' concept as the solution to the European housing problem at the Third 'Congrès International d'Architecturc Moderne' (CIAM) in 1930, proved highly influential (Turkington, Van Kempen et al. 2004; Hall, Murie et al. 2005; Van Beckhoven, Bolt et al. 2009).
