Page 46 - Vertical City

46 The vertical city

follows detailed analyses, on case-by-case basis, evalua-
ting the worth of and environmental impact of a poten-
tial new tower.

It is thus so that two high-rise apartment towers, of
which one is in the Maelbeek Valley on the edge of the
Parc Leopold at the center of the European administra-
tion quarter, are currently under construction creating
a welcome complementarity of functions, in addition to
other benefits for the offices, such as the projection of
shadow from those dwellings. There is thus a place, with
the greatest consultation of all, for high-rise building in
an “ancient” city 27 environment.

The development of European cities has slowly seen
the creation of vertical neighborhoods, and very timidly
for the Quartier Nord in Brussels; less for “La Défense”
(in the historical axis of the “Champs Élysées” but far
from the perspective of the historical monuments) or
the “Front de Seine”, in Paris.

From 1980 on in Europe

From 1980 there began the vertical development of
Frankfurt, to attract the financial sector at the detriment
of London. Indeed no historical perspective resisted the
bombings of the Second World War. The reaction of
the city was swift. Although susceptible to cold, making

27 The implantation of this tower enable a “sniper” to fire on the future
Europa building that I designed (Headquarters of EU Council) and
thus required us to install additional security measures during its
construction.