Fucking pivot then. The fancy green roof wasn’t built, there are still many ways to add benches and, more importantly, soil, trees and bushes. Throw some water fountains while you’re at it. The alternative is a sad, inhospitable place.
Even the original vision was still a frying pan, only with a green egg.
Sounds like it’s time to drill a bunch of holes and plant a bunch of trees.
I would have made a giant web of sunshades with the flags of all member nations. Then again, at the cost of some poles and large sunshades plus labor, what would we do with the other 12 million euros?
It is infinitely embarrassing that a simple roof as a shade is supposed to cost 13 million € or 5 million €.
Who is kidding themselves here.
Good on the Brussels local government for not allocating those funds.
It would not have been a simple roof, but yes, it should have been built.
Green spaces and places to relax socially are always a good thing.
I agree on the green and social places. The thing I don’t understand and where we disagree, is why everything always has to be such a dick measuring contest.
13 million Euros?! 13 MILLION Euros?
Not for a mansion, but for some… thing that’s supposed to nothing but block a little sun in the summer?!
It’s a lot of money for sure, but it doesn’t strike me as way off the mark given the size. As a fun exercise, check how much it costs to repave a street in your hometown and make sure you’re sitting down first.
They don’t even have to plant trees, they can put grass on the ground and give space for vines. I heard khudzu grows like weed 😉
The redevelopment plan for Schuman Square at the heart of the EU quarter in Brussels was very ambitious. From a traffic-clogged, nondescript roundabout, it would become “an urban agora”, a greener, calmer meeting place, nothing less, said a former head of the Brussels government, than “a symbol that beats as the heart … of the European project”.
It did not turn out that way. The result, say critics, is Europe’s largest frying pan, a concrete expanse with little greenery or shade. While the number of cars has reduced and the space is remodelled with smart grey paving, the centrepiece – a steel canopy with a green roof – was never built.
Taking up White House decor.
