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 The European Parliament Despite its drab reputation, Brussels is actually one of Europe’s most livable cities — compact, international, and wreathed by a vast green belt. One reason for its bad press, no doubt, is the way the megalithic headquarters of European Union institutions have been artlessly plopped into the European Quarter east of the city center. There is nothing there to warm the urban heart. The old Gare du Luxembourg station has been reduced to a façade — after a local uproar, it was preserved while the rest of the train station was put underground. The glass-and-steel carbuncle of the European Parliament, opened in 1998, lords over the Place du Luxembourg — and is now being expanded to accommodate new members. The endless construction has engendered a powerful preservation movement in Brussels, but the resulting clinch between bureaucrats and preservationists does little to serve the city’s interests.
— James Graff |
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Europe Then & Now, a TIME photographic exhibition based on this issue, opens Aug. 18, 2003, in the Olivier Exhibition Foyer of the National Theatre, London. |
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E-mail your letter to the editor
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Brussels
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Rem Koolhaas
Dutch architect and urban
planner who was part of a group commissioned to examine Brussels’ role as “the capital of Europe”
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Posted Sunday, August 10, 2003; 16.11BST
Europe suffers from a serious iconographic deficit, and Brussels is at the heart of it. I was astonished to discover that the buildings in which E.U. business takes place aren’t influenced by the E.U. at all; it has no input on the aesthetics of these buildings, all of which are commissioned and built by the Belgian government.
This has made the E.U. grotesquely vulnerable to allegations of facelessness. It is housed in default mode; it’s not like they even decided on modesty. What’s more, the architectural history of Brussels, beginning with the construction of the Palais de Justice in the late 19th century, is one of being perpetually raped in the name of modernization.
Once the E.U. buildings began to be built in the European Quarter beginning in the 1960s, Brussels’ citizens entered into a phase of paranoia about their city’s development. We have to reverse that syndrome. The buildings housing the E.U. institutions today are so mediocre that it doesn’t make sense for any of them to be considered permanent.
The discussion over the war in Iraq has made a vast contribution to Europe’s identity. Now the E.U. has to define its intentions and stop being passive recipients of architecture. The process is slow, but we’re not discouraged.
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Related Stories From The TIME Archive |
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Who Owns Berlin? [Aug. 4, 2003]
A battle rages over who holds title to some of the German capital's prime real estate
Lost In The Dark [June 30, 2003]
Berlin is on the brink and €46 billion in debt. It's enough to make some folks miss the Wall
Moscow's Invisible Homeless [Feb. 23, 2003]
A day in the life of the people who live on Moscow's massive Dolgoprudny garbage dump
Living la Vida Loca [Nov. 19, 2001]
Madrileños like it late, loud and lively in their multitude of bars and restaurants
Welcome to Water World [Oct. 8, 2001]
Sweden’s capital offers hundreds of years of history and culture — and a big prize
From Boom to Busts [April 26, 2001]
Ireland's capital city celebrates its heroes with statuary — and a touch of irreverence
Brussels Sprouts [Feb. 21, 2001]
Is the Capital of Europe becoming cool again?
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