In 2023, A will celebrate its 50th anniversary! To mark this occasion, each issue will offer a unique glimpse into our rich magazine archive, featuring a reprint of several old articles that tie in with the theme of the current issue. This time, we look back at A 33 (1976), A 86 (1985), A 127 (1994), A 180 and A 181 (2003), and A 187 (2004). 

Social housing has rarely been a focus of attention in A over the past decade, with an average of just over one article on the subject per year. However, this was not due to a lack of interest: there was simply too little to write about. Collective housing has recently received a lot of attention. A 280 (2019) was even devoted entirely to it. New collective forms of housing such as cohousing and cooperatives reflect the growing awareness that housing developments have become ecologically and even socially unacceptable. They also offer a solution to the increasing unaffordability of decent housing for roughly a third of Belgians. Fifty years of A teach us, curiously enough, that today’s problems and solutions echo those of the early 20th century, and unfortunately also that Belgian governments, however numerous they may be, have rarely tackled the problem effectively.