Two things immediately stand out as we talk to Gerlin: her modesty and her enormous passion for modernism from 1950 onwards. 'That love grew organically. My grandmother's house dated from the early 1960s'. It really was one of those up-and-coming sixties houses. Her yellow door with black boomerang latch is forever etched in my memory. The house is now sold, but I can say that the little spark caught fire there.' 

And so it begins...

'What I always enjoyed doing was visiting museums and artists' houses. I am incredibly curious about how people used to live. Basically, I find that fascinating about all periods, but I've always had a big bean for the 1950s and 1960s. I can't explain it, that era just appeals super hard to me. On the internet, I looked up everything I could find, and when a friend from Brussels started telling me about that typical architecture, I thought, wow, there is so much modernism in Belgium! That should be more well-known, right?'

First stop: the home of Renaat Braem

'Sometime in 2017, I started my Instagram page. In the beginning, that was just a personal page with a few hundred followers, purely out of interest. That's where I first launched a call for a tour. After all, I wanted to visit Renaat Braem's house in Antwerp, but for that you had to get fifteen people together. In no time I had a cool little group together.'

 Architecture holidays

And so the ball gradually started rolling. In the beginning it was all still very low profile. I would never have believed you if you had told me then that it would one day become this big. I did do more and more walks, with a guide, on my own, with a booklet in my hand... It almost became an obsession.' (Laughs.) 'Every spare moment I was busy with it. Abroad, I also visited properties. For a long time, I organised my holidays in function of architecture.'

Ding dong

'I increasingly went out for architecture. I still prefer to do that alone. After all, I get so absorbed on the road that I sometimes find it difficult to talk to anyone else. After a while, I started ringing the doorbells of the residents of houses I liked, just out of curiosity and so that I could organise a guided tour later on. The first time I did that, I really had to cross a threshold - literally and figuratively. The first house I dared ring the doorbell of was a design by Willy Van Der Meeren, in Aarschot. So it took a while, but now I ring people's doorbells without hesitation for a chat'. 

Link between residents and visitors

'I myself was so excited and inspired by that meeting that I became even more driven to organise tours with like-minded souls. Unfortunately, not much later corona came up, but I still tried to ring the doorbell. Then I simply asked if the resident would be up for opening the house for a tour. I act as an intermediary, so I don't accompany groups myself, but I arrange all the practical matters, do the promo and make the link between residents and interested parties.'

Book in sight!

'In 2020, I took the plunge and founded Tourist Modernist. I could work less at my other job anyway, so I took the time to create a website, hike even more - what else? - and get everything up and running. Actually, it was ideal. It ran so smoothly that I gave up my regular job in 2021. Now I put the focus on Tourist Modernist. In the meantime, I also self-published some walking brochures, each with one walk around modernism in Deurne (Antwerp), Ostend and Uccle. Meanwhile, even the unimaginable happened: publisher Luster contacted me to ask if I wanted to publish a walking guide around modernist buildings!'

Heritage with expiry date

'What has also always interested me is the social aspect of modernist housing, how people live in a house or block of flats. Willy Van Der Meeren, Renaat Braem... They were also very much into that. Sometimes, though, their thinking was too utopian to live well - some houses are not well insulated, have concrete rot.... Van Der Meeren mainly thought practically and economically and he built with cheap materials. 

Braem thought more about the artistry of architecture. Modernist houses from the 1920s and 1930s are still in good condition today, but those from the 1950s and 1960s... Not so much. Heating oil and gas cost next to nothing, people often didn't have a big budget so they built with cheap materials... Yet the designs remain beautiful and still strongly appeal to people.'

Sneak preview

'I find it incredibly fascinating to think about that issue, how do you deal with this kind of heritage? On the other hand, I can see the appreciation for it rising sharply in the last five years alone, also with Immodôme's properties. I consider it a privilege to be the first to be allowed to look inside modernist houses sold by Immodôme. After all, you never know if a walk could come out of it.' 

Want to know more about Tourist Modernist? Take a look at her website.