FRANCESCA COMUNE

“ Fractures and imbalances arose after the construction of the European district regards the economic and social aspects of the city. Brussels has always been an important place of power. To support this role, considerable investments have been made regularly to reshape the image of the city. The EU institutions and the Belgian state, facilitated the speculative construction and the decline of the area into a mostly soulless administrative district, which has brought with it all the resulting social, housing, economic and environmental problems the city suffers from today. Within the roughly four square kilometres between the Avenue des Arts and Parc du Cinquantenaire, change, destruction, and reconstruction is constant. It has made progress over the last decade in mixing land uses, bringing in more businesses and residences, and that the institutions are more open to “interacting” with the city. However, there is considerable division between the two communities, with local Brussels residents feeling excluded from the EU quarter (a “white collar ghetto”). Brussels, especially EU district, should reflect the EU’s position as the “server” of Europe, rather than it being an “imperial city” of an empire. “

[extract from original work]