Brusselization

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Many historic buildings were demolished and replaced with generic modern ones. This skyscraper stands on the site of Victor Horta's Art Nouveau Maison du Peuple. (Photo taken from Rue Samaritaine).

In urban planning, Brusselization (in English, bruxellisation in French and verbrusseling in Dutch) is "the indiscriminate and careless introduction of modern high-rise buildings into gentrified neighbourhoods" and has become a byword for "haphazard urban development and redevelopment".[1][2]

The notion applies to anywhere whose development follows the pattern of the uncontrolled development of Brussels in the 1960s and 1970s, that resulted from a lack of zoning regulations and the city authorities' laissez-faire approach to city planning.[3][4][5]

Brussels

From the 1960s to the 1980s

The original Brusselization was the type of urban planning utilized by the city of Brussels in connection with Expo 58. In order to prepare the city for Expo 58, buildings were torn down without regard either to their architectural or historical importance,[6] high-capacity square office/apartment buildings were built, boulevards were created and tunnels dug. All of these changes were designed to quickly increase the number of people working and living in the city and improve transportation.

Further changes resulted from Brussels' role as the center of the EU and NATO,[7][6] including the construction of the European Commission headquarters in 1959.[8]

These changes caused outcry amongst the citizens of Brussels and by environmentalist and preservationist organizations. The demolition of Victor Horta's Art Nouveau Maison du Peuple in 1965 was one focus of such protests, (see photograph on right for what now stands on its site), as was the construction of the IBM Tower in 1978.[9]

Many architects protested, and it was the architectural world that coined the name Brusselization for what was happening to Brussels. Architects such as Léon Krier and Maurice Culot formulated an anti-capitalist urban planning theory, as a rejection of the rampant modernism that they saw overtaking Brussels.[10][4]

Historical precedent and underpinnings for modernization in Brussels

This was not the first time that Brussels had been heavily redeveloped. The new avenues created after Parisian models after the covering of the Senne in the 19th century, and the North-South connection in the 1930s were two prior sweeping changes to the urban fabric of Brussels. André De Vries asserts that the precedent can be traced further: all of the way back through the reign of Leopold II to the bombardment of the city by Maréchal de Villeroy in 1695. "There is barely one building still standing", he says, "from before 1695, with the exception of some churches and the Town Hall.".[11]

Leopold II sought to give Brussels the image of a grand capital city of an imperial/colonial power. By the middle 20th century there was a tacit alliance between urban development entrepreneurs and local government, with a modernist agenda and with their sights set firmly on large-scale development projects. The citizens of Brussels were largely left out of the process.[12]

The 1990s: From Brusselization to façadism

Brusselization in contemporary Bucharest.[citation needed]

In the early 1990s, laws were introduced that restricted the demolition of buildings that were deemed to have architectural or historical significance; and in 1999 the city authorities' urban development plan explicitly declared high-rise buildings to be architecturally incompatible with the existing aesthetics of the city centre.[13][8] This led to the rise of what was termed façadisme — the destruction of the whole interior of a historic building whilst preserving its historic façade.[14][2][11]

The laws were the Town Planning Act 1991, which gave local authorities the powers to refuse demolition requests on the grounds of historical, aesthetic, or cultural significance; and to designate architectural heritage zones; and the Heritage Conservation Act of 1993, which gave the government of the Brussels Capital Region the power to designate buildings to be protected for historic reasons. However, this system had its deficiencies. Whilst the BCR government could designate historic buildings, it was the nineteen municipal authorities within it that were responsible for demolition permits. It wasn't until the introduction of a permis unique system that this internecine conflict was resolved.[8]

See also

References

Cross-reference

  1. ↑ State 2004, p. 51–52.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Stubbs & Makaš 2011, pp. 121.
  3. ↑ State 2004, p. 51–52.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Béghain & Gabilliet 2004, p. 109.
  5. ↑ Papadopoulos 1996, p. 66.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Elliott & Cole 2010, p. 64.
  7. ↑ State 2004, p. 51–52.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Stubbs & Makaš 2011, pp. 120.
  9. ↑ State 2004, p. 51–52.
  10. ↑ Lagrou 2003, p. 303.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 De Vries 2003, p. 14.
  12. ↑ Swyngedouw & Moyersoen 2006, p. 158.
  13. ↑ State 2004, p. 51–52.
  14. ↑ Hein 2004, p. 264.

Sources used

  • Béghain, Véronique; Gabilliet, Jean-Paul (2004). The cultural shuttle: the United States in/of Europe. European contributions to American studies 57. VU University Press. ISBN 978-90-5383-949-2. 
  • De Vries, André (2003). Brussels: a cultural and literary history. Signal Books. ISBN 978-1-902669-47-2. 
  • Elliott, Mark; Cole, Geert (2010). "Brussels". Belgium and Luxembourg. Country Guide Series (4th ed.). Lonely Planet. ISBN 978-1-74104-989-3. 
  • Hein, Carola (2004). The capital of Europe: architecture and urban planning for the European Union. Perspectives on the twentieth century. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-275-97874-7. 
  • Lagrou, Evert (2003). "Brussels: A superimposition of social, cultural, and spatial layers". In Salet, W. G. M.; Kreukels, Anton; Thornley, Andy. Metropolitan governance and spatial planning: comparative case studies of European city-regions. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-27449-4. 
  • Papadopoulos, A. G. (1996). Urban regimes and strategies: building Europe's central executive district in Brussels. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-64559-9. 
  • State, Paul F. (2004). "Brusselization". Historical dictionary of Brussels. Historical dictionaries of cities of the world 14. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-5075-0. 
  • Stubbs, John H.; Makaš, Emily G. (2011). "Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands". Architectural Conservation in Europe and the Americas. John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-90099-4. 
  • Swyngedouw, Erik; Moyersoen, Johan (2006). "Reluctant Globalizers: The Paradoxes of "Glocal" Development in Brussels". In Amen, Michael Mark. Relocating global cities: from the center to the margins. Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series G. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-4122-1. 

Further reading

Urban planning terms derived from the names of cities
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