Pacheco – Passage 44

Located in the centre of Brussels, Pachecolaan 44 is a remarkable sixteen-level office building (thirteen aboveground and three underground). Strategically situated on Brussels’ ring road, it acts as a landmark for the neighbourhood. The building is an eye-catcher owing to the wickerwork pattern of the concrete modules in the elevations. It was designed in 1964 by the architect Marcel Lambrichs and his team for the former Gemeentekrediet (Crédit Communal de Belgique) bank. Pacheco, as the complex was known, provided over six thousand square metres of office space and was the bank’s headquarters until 2015. Its plinth was a mixed-use arcade housing a cinema, restaurants, shops, exhibition space and an auditorium. In the 1970s, this ‘Passage 44’ had a reputation as a vibrant centre of cultural life. Today the tower is home to Belgium’s Immigration Department, while the plinth has been converted into a KU Leuven campus. Pacheco and Passage 44 belong indisputably to Brussels’ collective memory and by extension to that of Belgium, due in part to the well-attended exhibitions and lectures that Gemeentekrediet organized in ‘its’ arcade. The bank presented itself as a socially engaged business and regarded the promotion of art and knowledge as one of its core tasks. In addition, the building’s history is closely tied to post-war developments in the fields of urban planning and architecture in Brussels. Its historical and urban design values were part of the reason why the Gemeentekrediet’s former headquarters was added to the Brussels Capital Region’s official heritage register in 2024. Despite Pacheco’s heritage credentials, it has received very little attention in the literature. By placing Pacheco and Passage 44 in their architectural-historical context once more, this article aims to contribute to knowledge of Brussels’ post-war heritage. It does so by considering two key moments: the original design and construction phase in the 1960s, and the staff restaurant project by the designer Frans L. Van Praet, which was executed around the turn of the century. The works carried out in these two periods can be classified respectively as ‘modern’ and ‘postmodern’. The integration of these antithetical design concepts within the same building complex is unique in the Belgian context. As well as an examination of the past, this article offers an insight into future possibilities for large-scale post-war projects. In light of growing interest in the modern movement and in young heritage, the article considers theory, heritage policy and restoration practice within the Brussels Capital Region. Although young heritage has gained (academic) recognition and legal protection, the translation of theoretical heritage evaluation into restoration practice is faltering. The development of a broader methodology in the field of ‘value mapping’ can offer a solution to this. An analysis of the Pacheco case provides valuable insights of benefit to the sustainability of future projects.