Flanders is dotted with social housing estates from the 1960s that are in urgent need of regeneration. Some possess the qualities of a garden suburb. Through smart densification, they can be developed into ‘nature-inclusive’ urban neighbourhoods. Social housing association (SHM) Woonpunt Schelde-Rupel demonstrates how this works with the Open Call for the Schrijverswijk in Zwijndrecht.

In 1909, the British architect Raymond Unwin published his *Town Planning in Practice*: a toolbox full of organic housing schemes in which compact dwellings are linked to collective green spaces via a catalogue of ‘community-enhancing’ street and square types. The DIY urban planning concept of the garden suburb became a reality and quickly resonated across the globe. This was also the case in Belgium, where, in the 1920s, neighbourhoods such as Le Logis and Floréal in Watermaal-Bosvoorde were realised as splendid cooperative interpretations of Unwin’s ideas.