#brusselization

CITY-STORY . Bruxelles

Bruxelles is a heterogeneous, entropic, often paradoxical city, resulting from habitual urban reconstruction driven by entrepreneurial and political motives. Large scale, drastic  projects throughout history have diverted, connected, overlaid and fragmented the urban landscape into the chaotic collage it is today. 

Timeline of Urban Projects in Bruxelles

1867/ The Senne River, once the founding place and source of economy for Brussels had by the early 19th century, become nothing more than a polluted open sewer. Several infrastructural projects over sixty years redirected and covered the Senne to the point where most Brusseleers have forgotten it's existence.

19th c/ Leopold II, 'The Builder King' demolished vast residential areas for the creation of straight, broad boulevards which connected the urban fabric with the outlying landscape. Sound familiar?

1952/ The North-South Junction, a massive endeavour of urban modernization, connected the national rail network and simultaneously divided the city of Brussels.

1959/ 'Europeanization' of the city after the establishment of the European Union generated oppositions physically and socially; foreigners and inhabitants, office towers and residential blocks, wealth and poverty.