Cities (and regions) within a city: Subnational representations and the creation of European imaginaries in Brussels

Cities (and regions) within a city: Subnational representations and the creation of European imaginaries in Brussels

Hein, C.M.

Architecture and The Built Environment

Architecture

2015-01-09

This article explores how sub-national institutions – representations from cities and regions – help create a European imaginary in Brussels. Political scientists and other scholars have noted the importance of these city and regional institutions, but have paid little attention to their physical form. Through a select set of case studies, this article analyses the vast impact that small-scale interventions in the use and re-imagination of select buildings occupied by the subnational institutions have on Brussels' urban form and function. Focusing on representations from German states, notably the city-states of Hamburg and Bremen, and including select other city and regional offices, the present article offers some first ideas of how the physical presence of these small entities transforms European Brussels. It asks how the selection, construction, reuse and restoration of buildings for the subnational institutions reshape the urban patterns of Brussels, how their architecture and external decoration contribute to the creation of a European narrative within the city, and how the institutional actors use Brussels' buildings in their print marketing and web presences constructing entangled European and regional identities.

subnational representations
capital of Europe
capital cities
Brussels
city and regional offices
European Union
OA-Fund TU Delft

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c2c41a15-2790-4bca-b4bf-bf46830480e1

Taylor & Francis

1226-5934

https://doi.org/10.1080/12265934.2014.980304

International Journal of Urban Sciences, 19 (1), 2015

Institutional Repository

journal article

(c) 2014 Hein, C.M.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)