Brussels Day 1
Moving out of Liege, we moved into the capital of Belgium, Brussels. As customary, we had a tour of city, wherein I learnt a great deal about the city. Our tour guide, Professor Jeffrey Tyssens was very unappreciative of city architecture and planning, to which I concur with. Unlike most of the cities we have visited so far, there was a lack of uniformity in architectural pattern of the buildings across the city. The buildings were of different colors with varying facades. While some of them looked magnificent, others looked third-world. Professor Jeffrey blamed the city’s municipal authority for this mess. He explained how there was a period of de-regulation wherein builders could construct any kind of building they wanted. Additionally, he also touched upon the politics behind the mess. According to him, the authorities in charge of the city are appointed based upon on their political power and not their qualifications. Therefore, they had the wrong people doing the wrong job.
Immediately, I drew comparisons between the Netherlands and Belgium using architecture as focal point in analyzing the difference in cultures. As one can clearly see, Belgium had politics influencing activities more than logic and rationale. Also, they aren’t very sentimental as when old buildings were demolished, there was no resistance to it. In contrast, I clearly remember the resistance that authorities faced in Amsterdam after the construction of a new building. They found the building ugly, and immediately halted the planned change of other buildings in the neighborhood. Additionally, I had earlier spoken about a liberal building policy in Brussels which caused many old buildings to go. This policy was very chaotic, and was heavily influenced by politics. The entire system was bureaucratic which resulted in the relatively ugly faces of many buildings in the city. The Netherlands, on the other hand is very liberal but in a very noble sense. Politics do influence the decision making process, but logic prevails over politics. Or that is at least what we see.
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