Brussels: Five capitals in search of a place. The citizens, the planners and the functions

The paper describes the different capital city functions that are accomodated in Brussels. There are in fact five different capitals in Brussels in search of a place. Their locations are conditioned by Brussels' eventful history. The analysis subsequently focuses on the rather negative relation between the local public intellectuals and the city's European capital functions. The location of the European headquarters within the existing urban fabric – unlike Luxemburg and Strasbourg – has caused residential expulsion and further confrontations with the local community during all expansions.Brussels has the most politically decisive institutions. The competition with Luxemburg and Strasbourg has in the past given rise to dubious building processes and hidden agendas regarding the further construction of the necessary space for Europe.Unlike most other capitals Brussels has a low degree of esteem from its citizens. The After-May 68- Movement reacting initially against the CIAM-realisations during the 1970s, continues its activities up until today against two highly symbolic projects: the North Station area called the Manhattan Quarter and the European Headquarters. The movement launched the term Brusselization on the international forum and continues to promote the negative image of its city – notwithstanding the complete change of the official urban planning.The article is a plea for the integration of the actual one-sided advocacy planning within a more comprehensive urban planning approach where strong and soft functions are more in balance. This can also improve the quality of the new European campus now under consideration to accomodate the entry of the East European states in the Union.     

Where do planes fly past overhead? Determining departure and arrival routes from radar traces

This paper questions the main techniques of mapping in the context of aircraft noise in the vicinity of airports, and compares these techniques in terms of their purpose, benefits and limitations. Then the paper describes a method to summarise radar traces of a given air transport departure or arrival route into a median route and its envelope containing 80% of flights. This makes it possible to map global and easy-to-read maps of current air procedures around airports based on actual pathways flown by the aircraft. It also makes it possible to investigate the impact of change in aeronautical procedures on the actual geography of air routes around airports. Such maps complement noise contour maps and offer a good basis for debating aeronautical procedures at airports whose operations expose the population to noise.     

Choosing a site for the capital of Europe

The European Union has achieved internal cohesion and international economic recognition, but economics alone has not yet led to a united Europe. Although this cohesiveness strongly influence regions and cities, and cities have started to refer to their European background, the member nations continue to hold regional and urban planning power. Forced to take unanimous decisions, the European Council of Ministers maintained the doctrine of a unique capital for 40 years, provoking numerous urban and architectural visions while simultaneously accepting the existence of three provisional headquarters, Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg. The host nations, Belgium, France and Luxembourg meanwhile oriented these cities to both European economic considerations and local needs.This article analyzes the logic that led to decentralization of the capital city functions, the reasons why cities were interested in hosting the European Communities, what individual cities and nations suggested and why the most obvious solutions were not adopted. The Maastricht Treaty, the ongoing strengthening of European and regional institutions, and the choice of the provisional headquarters as definite capitals in 1992 gives cause for hope that concepts based on European and regional necessities beyond the nation-state will now be elaborated. A European network of cities and regions including the three political capitals of Europe, as revealed by their infrastructures and buildings, seems to be the best expression of the meaning of European unity.     

Brussels, a truncated metropolis

This paper describes and analyses the geographical development and the governmental, budget and administrative structure of Brussels. It defines the place Brussels occupies among the cities of Europe and assesses the value of its Regional Development Plan. Brussels appears to be highly successful in international inter-city competition, but it also appears to be unable to develop a strategy for dealing with the problems of the divided city it has become in the late-20th century. Key factors in explaining this paradox are a discrepancy between the political delimitation of the Brussels Capital Region (a member state of the federal state of Belgium) and the geographical urban region, and the administrative fragmentation of the Brussels Capital Region. These factors are strongly related to the reform of the Belgian state and the forces behind this reform. In the absence of a strategy based on solidarity within the metropolitan community, one has to fear for the development towards a repressive city. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.