International SQUALL

Brussels Squatters Take On City

Squall 12, Spring 1996, pg. 51.

Tourist brochures drone on about the beautiful Golden guild houses of Grand place in Brussels, meanwhile the rest of the city is falling apart due to massive development projects.

Entire blocks of architecturally superb buildings are being evicted and left idle as speculators buy up half the central city to invest in office blocks. The result is that streets upon streets are filled with buildings, built in the 1880s, are being left to rot leaving the city to degenerate.

One particular block on Rue Auguste which once included a Hotel, cinema, apartments and cafes now stands derelict since an Antwerp investment company landmaster bought it and closed it in 1987. Sitting opposite the stock exchange it is prime space for the suits and ties of the financial world. Strangely enough the two remaining premises left operating are a small cafe and a two storey McDonald’s. The cafe owner has been given constant harassment to leave while the Big Mac people are firmly rooted.

In January 1995 activists occupied the abandoned Hotel and opened it back up to the people, running a vegetarian cafe didn’t go down too well with McD and the resulting positive media coverage embarrassed the council. The last words of the activists as they left were “do something or we will be back”.

It took a year, but on January 12, 1996, activists once again squatted the block, this time going for the apartments. As police blocked off the entrance the squat crew of architectural students and social activists worked throughout the night, completely renovating one apartment as a show piece. As banners dropped the next morning the local media went wild with coverage and once again embarrassed the council and investors. As one activist, Zoe De Smedt, said: “Belgium does not have a tradition of residential Squatting like the Netherlands or England but as a symbolic occupation it is a very powerful tool. People want to live and party in the city and keep it alive. Office blocks will make Brussels cold and unwelcoming.”

The Police left when their estimate that only four activists were inside turned out to be severely inaccurate: fifty squatters streamed out onto the balconies. The media were herded into the renovated apartment, TV cameras were pointed in the right places and journos scribbled with delight. Unfortunately, not so much media attention went to the homeless people who squatted a disused château on the far side of the city. Two weeks before Christmas ten people occupied the building and are happily living there escaping the cold winds of the city. As for the architectural squatters, they left after a few days promising to return if nothing changes.