Blot

As housing becomes unaffordable in cities, people are moving out to the country. Pity not all of them have taste when it comes to architecture. Worse still, the idiots who run our commune give planning permission to ghastly designs like this one.

This is, or was, the first of six new houses in a development on the edge of our village, overlooking beautiful fields. It's so loathsome I almost have no words for it. It's as tall as a 4-storey building, much taller than the village church which is the tallest building in these parts. The brick is such a livid orange that it hurts my eyes to look at it. The design is boxy and hideous, with no concessions made for the surrounding landscape or local village architecture. A few months ago, the upper floors and roof mysteriously burned down and construction ground to a halt. There was a lot of cheering amongst the natives. What happens next is anyone's guess. For sure there will be years of wrangling between lawyers, insurance companies, builders, architects and commune officials. Bureaucracy, after all, is Belgium's major sport.

It is, as the cliche goes, a blot on the landscape. I almost didn't want to blip this because it's so ugly, but I wanted to document what's going on around here.