Brusselization

Victor Horta's Art Nouveau Maison du Peuple was demolished to make way for the skyscraper in the photo

Brusselization is a term used by urban planners to describe anarchic commercial property development in a historic city. The term originated as the result of the uncontrolled development of Brussels in the 1960s and 1970s, where unscrupulous developers were given free rein to build a futuristic city. It often also entails developers' method of destroying old buildings by neglect, allowing them to decay to the point where demolition is unavoidable.

Origin

The term relates to 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, 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 of this increased population. The process of development without regard to Brussels' historical and architectural patrinomy accelerated when it later became the center of the EU and NATO. The long term effects of this disastrous lack of city planning are now becoming even more apparent as the shoddily constructed buildings hastily thrown up in the '60's, '70's and '80's are showing their deterioration and functional obsolescence.

Analysis

Other cities have also been prey to property speculators. The Paris of Haussmann, for example, allowed lucrative development to occur often at the expense of the 'little people', displaced into 'La Zone'. However the Paris of Haussmann could at least justify itself by its aesthetic charms, since the new avenues created were very attractive. The same can be said about the new avenues created after Parisian models in Brussels after the covering of the Senne in the 19th century, but this and especially the North-South connection in the 1930s had already left terrible scars on the urban fabric of Brussels. In a way, the fact that the city of Brussels had already been so badly mutilated and had not really recovered, made things easier for property developers to overcome those in Brussels' city planning commission entrusted with preserving the city's architectural and historical "patrimoine".

References

• Famous chancellery house to be destroyed (in French)[1]
• Falstaff block submerged by the brick (in French)[2]

• 
  This tower was built on the site of the original Maison du Peuple/Volkshuis.
• Brusselization in contemporary Bucharest.
  Brusselization in contemporary Bucharest.
• 
  The sculptures of the White Lamb at Brussels, in the Marché aux Herbes, by the famous sculptor Peter van Dievoet, disciple of Grinling Gibbons, they are disappearing as one of the last victims of Brusselization, foto 2008.

See also

• Facadism
• Historic Preservation
• Venice Charter
• Demolition
• Jardin du Maelbeek