Outrage: Ugly Belgian Houses
21 AUGUST, 2018 BY HANNES COUDENYS
Ugly or boring? Belgium’s lack of planning constraints fuels a culture of the grotesque and the banal
Who was ugly first?
As a Belgian, let me describe how it feels to get there from its many neighbours. Coming from the North Sea, you might imagine Belgium has wonderful white cliffs like Dover. In reality, you are confronted with a kind of horrendous contemporary version of the Atlantic Wall. From Knokke in the north to De Panne in the south, a trail of concrete desolation extends along the entire coastal strip.
Coming from the broad rolling plains of France, you just drive straight in. Without border posts, you could easily miss the sign saying ‘Belgium’. You only realise that you’re there when a curiously oppressive feeling takes hold. Where has all the picturesque French landscape gone?
▻https://www.architectural-review.com/10034410.article
https://www.architectural-review.com/pictures/1180xany/7/3/6/3122736_uglybelgianhouses_hannescoudenys_dezeen_784_11.jpg 
https://www.architectural-review.com/pictures/1180xany/7/3/8/3122738_uglybelgianhouses_hannescoudenys_dezeen_784_13.jpg ‘We are realistic Surrealists. Ceci n’est pas une maison. C’est ma maison’
Coming from the Netherlands, your mood might lift when you get to Belgium because you can do what you like, architecturally. This is not the case in the Netherlands, where a building inspector decides how your house will look. I detest these inspectors, because Belgium is now swamped by Dutch people flitting over the border to build their dream home, unfettered by constraints. It might be an ersatz Spanish hacienda or an ersatz Belgian farmhouse. Generally, the ersatz hacienda predominates, a cruel irony in our gloomy, rain-lashed country.
