Page 45 - Vertical City
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RECONCILING HIGH-RISE LIVING AND THE SUN 45
Only uninhabited towers of cathedrals, belfries and
town halls at the time, punctuated European cityscapes.
It was only when these cities, relatively small, began to
develop neighborhoods at a distance from these histo-
rical towers that it became possible to imagine new and
inhabitable towers. At the beginning of the 20th century
any construction higher than 15 m, and now 25 m, was
considered as a high-rise building by the fire and emer-
gency services.
Each of these projects concerning isolated towers
was the subject of long debates and criticism. Generally
rejected by the population they became constructions
resulting from “The choice of the Prince” and of course
highly criticized in intellectual circles 25.
In Belgium the first law on urban planning of 1962
(written by Victor Bure, the Director-General of Urba-
nism and Planning) was the catalyst for the concerted
and democratic approach to urban planning. This first
legislation has been largely developed during the past 50
years to arrive at planning practices based on the grea-
test possible consultation. In Brussels 26 to the first speci-
fic urban planning regulations in the 60s for the Avenue
Louise (which foresaw punctuating the cityscape with
several office towers) and the “Quartier Nord” now
25 The Residence Palace (1930), was a high-rise building that entirely
dominated its surrounding environment: it could for this reason be
considered as the building that catalyzed the type of construction
that was called in the 1980s Brusselization, opposed to the two tall
apartment buildings very elegantly integrated at the same time in
the urban planning of the Square de Meeûs.
26 One may also cite the “Tour du Midi”.
