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its technical installations slowly degraded and its
occupants began to move out, whereas the rear of the
structure marked the beginning of the North district.
2
Despite Philippe Samyn’s strong convictions about the
importance of re-using existing structures, such an
option was not retained for the Tour Martini, whose
technical and functional obsolescence became clear
after an in-depth analysis. The Tour Dexia
(01-301)
,
with its rather American, and therefore relatively classic,
aesthetic, should – as it was in the first sketches – have
been thinner, better to match the urban landscape; nev-
ertheless, it fits well into the North district, and ensures
a better transition than the Tour Martini did, even
though the side streets still need to be re-developed.
The single-use nature of the building has been the sub-
ject of a great deal of criticism.
In Gratte-ciel contemporains (Contemporary
Skyscrapers), a short book published in 2003 and very
pertinent (and impertinent) in places, Eric Höweler
attempts to establish a typology of office towers. His
categories include buildings that are hi-tech, monolithic,
kinetic, theatrical, attention seeking and ecological,
along with the category of ‘global/local’ – or ‘globalocal’
as Höweler puts it – which attempt an often simplistic
allusion to local traditional styles.
3
Nevertheless, this
entomological classification, clever though it may be,
leaves the reader with a feeling of unease in that each
term appears to exclude the others. There is no attempt
to classify the Tour Dexia. The largest category, and
the one least affected by trends, is reserved for what
Eric Höweler calls ‘ecological buildings’, which the
author sees as one of the principal directions for the
architecture of the future. One of the problems of con-
temporary architecture appears to be the phenomenon
of self-sufficiency. In other words, the juxtaposition of
autonomous objects with no direct relation between
them, the absence of context and the rivalry of architec-
tural expressions have resulted in a generally disastrous
urban cacophony. This is the fulfilment of the ‘Collage
City’ theory, popularised in a book of the same name by
Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter, which was much praised
in the 1970s, although such an approach had already
started to wreak havoc prior to this date.
4
When the
architect can imagine the environment of his works,
and when the urban conditions are clear and rational
(as is the case of traditional urban blocks, but rarely
that of housing estates), he or she has ideal conditions
for creation, but these conditions are, unfortunately,
very rarely met. France thought that it could solve its
problems via the
pos
(plan d’occupation des sols, or
land use plan). Belgium attempted something similar
with the
ppas
(plans particuliers d’affectation du sol ) and
the
pca
(plans communaux d’aménagement). It is clear,
however, that these were illusions, which is all the more
shocking as these regulations are simply attempting
to catch up with the speed of property and building
speculation.
When the various entrants in a competition for the con-
struction of a new Belgian embassy in Tokyo
(01-516)
designed their projects, only part of the available land
had been reserved for the embassy. The remainder
was for the construction of a privately operated com-
mercial building. In contrast, near ideal conditions were
created for the re-development of the district around
Leuven railway station, despite (or thanks to) the rivalry
of design offices, political interventions of all types and
the role played by two Flemish architects in this difficult
case (Bob Van Reeth and Marcel Smets, successively).
The co-existence of very different architectures was
accomplished without major conflict, although a few
architectural excesses are to be regretted
(see 01-389
and 01-432)
.
In a project for the research and technology centre
designed for Arenberg campus in 1999–2000
(01-391)
,
a scientific park for the Université Catholique de
Louvain, the landscaping and passageways evoke the
lush, intimate character of garden cities. They are also
reminiscent of the variety and density of a small town,
in which the various street-level activities allow for a
mix of functions and proximity of services, and where,
despite the unified nature of the shapes, changes in
01-500
Euroshopping housing units,
Mechelen, 2005
01-508
Public library, Waregem, 2006