Building for Belgium : Belgian Embassies in a Globalising World (1945-2020) / / Bram De Maeyer

• Record Nr.: UNINA9911034565103321
• Autore: Maeyer Bram de
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Leuven : , : Leuven University Press, , 2025; ©2025
• ISBN: 94-6166-678-0; 94-6166-677-2
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource : illustrations (colour)
• Disciplina: 725.17
• Soggetti: Embassy buildings - Design and construction; Architecture - Belgium
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Nota di contenuto: Foreword / Mark Eyskens -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Notes regarding the maps and the monetary values used in the book -- Introduction -- The ambassador’s agency : the head of mission as project developer (1945–1957) -- Building embassies on demand : the steering role of the receiving state (1958–1974) -- “It’s the economy, stupid!” : constructing embassies as venues for economic diplomacy (1980–1985) -- Plugging the holes in the federal budget : monetizing the Belgian embassy patrimony (1999–2020) -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Illustration credits -- Index.
• Sommario/riassunto: "Embassy buildings are the most tangible evidence of a state’s diplomatic presence abroad. State authorities have invested in the architectural conception of purpose-built embassies to flex their diplomatic muscle and project nationhood on foreign soil. While scholars have primarily focused on purpose-built embassies of (former) world powers, Building for Belgium shifts the perspective by scrutinizing the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ embassy-building program from 1945 to 2020. Rather than a conventional political assessment of diplomatic relations, the book foregrounds the often-overlooked architectural lives of embassies and their social, economic, and political entanglements. By examining Belgian embassy projects ; across all continents, it reveals how the Belgian diplomatic corps has navigated diverse political regimes, geopolitical contexts, cultures, and building codes. More than the outcome of a deliberate policy, the embassy-building program has been shaped by incidental decisions, private ambitions and personal tastes of Belgian diplomats, ministry officials and politicians. Building for Belgium not only sheds light on diplomatic architecture but also connects domestic conversations about architecture in Belgium with global state-building projects. Offering fresh insights into the politics of space, it will be of value to scholars and practitioners in architecture, urban studies, international relations, cultural heritage, and Belgian and European studies."--Publisher information.