Cities of Belgium - Pt. 1

[Ronald]

I went on an excursion with Planning students and staff from my Uni last week, for 8 days we explored all of Belgium.

I'll post 4 threads, two of Brussels, one of cities in the Flemmish part of the country (where Dutch is spoken) and one of cities in the Walloon region of the country (where French is spoken).

Part 1: Brussels

This is a world city, being the capital of the EU, the NATO, the Brussels city region government, the Flemmish region government, The Flemmish community government, The Walloon community government and the Federal government. It used to be a Dutch speaking city in the beginning of the 20th century, noways 90% of the pop. is french-speaking. Out of 1,5 million inhabitants, 250,000 are from countries in the EU, 500,000 are from mediterranean countries (mostly Morocco, Turkey, Italy and Spain), hundreds of thousands are from the former colony of Congo and from all over the world.

Everyone is from somewhere else, you can say.

The city is also the centre-stage in the language battle going on between the dutch speaking and the french speaking groups.

(continued from part one)

Inner-city ringroad, which is shaped like a pentagon ('de vijfhoek')

Social housing in a poorer residential district in the inner city.

An abandonned train station

signs of immigrant presence are everywhere

Around the European neighbourhood

[Ronald]

The neighbourhood in the city region with the highest population density, just outside of the inner city.

Reminds you of HK?

Around governmental buildings of the EU

This neighbourhood reminded me a lot of 'Mitte' in Berlin: postwar, grid street layout, considerable density, broad avenues, etc.

EU government buildings.

Art inside the council of europe building.

In front of the main building of the council of Europe.

Nice park in a residential neighbourhood adjacent to the European neighbourhood.

Lastly: an expo on architecture in the EU neighbourhood

Next: the newtown of Louvain-la-Neuve

[Rural King]

Great stuff!

The Council of Europe project wasn't quite done when I was there last. It is a very intimidating complex to say the least. I sort of like it though none the less.

The new Brussel's skyline is very interesting too. What is the background on that?

[dgreco]

Don't know if I would like it all over my city, but the graffitti art is awesome and well done.

[seicer]

That is low-income housing? The ones immediately below it do look something less desirable.

^ I agree, I'm not sure I like that amount of graff all over the city. Was it isolated to where you were at? Or is it widespread?