The «Quartier Royal» – An architectural complex created by a government initiative.

For several centuries, the Quartier Royal has been synonymous with government and public institutions. It was the seat of power for a succession of provinces, starting with Brabant and followed by Burgundy and Habsburg, before ultimately becoming Belgium.

At the heart of the quarter, the Hôtel de Ligne and the Hôtel du Greffe – formerly known under the name of Torrington – are home to the Parliament of the French Community of Belgium. The institution's choice of this location thus continues a tradition stretching back several centuries.

Following on from an early primitive fortification built in the Senne valley (probably on the small island of Saint-Géry), advances in the art of defences, urban development, population growth and the arrival of tradesmen and merchants would lead the lords of Brussels to choose the city heights as the location for their residence. The first castle was built in Coudenberg. From the thirteenth century onwards, the new site became the Court's favoured meeting place. The hill of Coudenberg gradually became the seat of cental power, combining government offices and institutions, and attracting the new aristocracy from all over the country.

The transfer of our regions to the House of Burgundy and the arrival of Philip the Good necessitated the construction of a second palace and the extension of the adjoining grounds. In the late sixteenth century, it consisted of four large main buildings built around a vast rectangular court (the Aula magna). The building, fronted by a large esplanade enclosed within a monumental balustrade – the Place des Bailles – was also surrounded by estate land: the Warande (a word derived from the Flemish name for a wild rabbit, thus signifying a game reserve).

Up until 1731, despite a disastrous period during the reign of Philip II, the Court of Brussels had always been located in the old ducal palace of Brabant. However, during the night of 3rd-4th February of that year, the building was ravaged by fire. Despite several proposals for its reconstruction, the building remainded abandoned until 1769, when the idea of refurbishing the Place des Bailles was again mooted. But it was in 1772, to mark the 25th anniversary of the government of Charles de Lorraine, that the Brabant states decided to erect a statue on the Place des Bailles, to be accompanied by a complex of buildings. In 1775, working to the drawings and plans of Barré, the architect Barnabé Guimard assumed the day-to-day responsibility for the work. These two architects were to imprint a strong neo-classical influence upon the construction, a style which dominated French architecture at that time. An identical approach was adopted for each of the buildings in order to create an entirely renovated quarter characterised by the regularity of its layout, the uniformity of its frontages, and its overall symmetry.

At the same time, the Park itself was also redeveloped (between 1775 and 1787): the idea was to provide the city with a rectangular public walk with the park at the centre. It was delimited by four roads bordered with three-storey buildings, coated and painted in the colour of French stone: today, these roads are the Rue Royale, Rue de la Loi, Rue Ducale and the Place des Palais.The Hôtel du Greffe – Three mansions in Rue de la Loi developed by L.-B. Dewez behind Guimard frontages.

The construction of the frontages of the roads in the Quartier Royal preceded the sale of the parcelled-out land behind them.

In the Rue de Brabant (nowadays the Rue de la Loi), sales proceeded slowly, and the Abbey of Affligem put in a bid for the purchase of three parcels to the left of the premises of the Sovereign Council of Brabant. The deed of purchase stipulated the rapid construction, across the entire width of the land in question, of a great prestige mansion, flanked by two smaller mansions in the low wings. Considerable latitude was given to the purchasers, provided that the frontages remained consistent with their surroundings.

The three buildings constructed by the abbey each experienced different fortunes, with their interiors being developed in accordance with the business conducted by their respective initial occupants.

The building with the most imposing frontage (now No. 6, Rue de la Loi) bears the name of the Hôtel Torrington. Its right-hand nighbour has a low frontage, three windows wide, and a sumptuous carriage entrance with columns and an attic; it was occupied by the widow Verseyde of Varick before being incorporated into the Parliament (Senate). The left-hand mansion was very small, but featured a very attractive carriage entrance and a window providing light for a large room at the front; one Mr. Aguilar appears to have used it only for his business offices.

The Hôtel Torrington, known today as the Hôtel du Greffe, was for many years associated with the Senate buildings and occupied by this institution: later, from 1975, it was used solely by the brand-new Cultural Council of the French Cultural Community. Running short of space, the body which had now become the Parliament of the Wallonia-Brussels French Community relocated some of its functions in 2001 to the recently-redeveloped Hôtel de Ligne.

The magnificent old rooms of No. 6 Rue de la Loi (the apartments of Lord and Milady Torrington) are home to the offices of the President and Secretary-General of the Parliament of the French Community, as well as to a number of administrative departments.The Hôtel de Ligne – From its origins to the establishment of the Wallonia-Brussels French Community.

The Hôtel de Ligne is an hôtel de maître located at the intersection of Rue Royale and Rue des Colonies. It was originally an integral part of a complex of buildings, included in the plan produced by Guimard for the Quartier Royal. From the original group of three properties behind a single frontage as purchased by the Countess of Lannoy purchased in 1779 to the existing structure, the building has undergone a variety of transformations. However, the wall decorations of the prestige lounges have not been altered since 1897, when it passed out of the the Ligne family's hands.

The property had a number of owners (the Count of Lannoy, Baron van Heckeren van Enghuizen, the Count of Villegas de Clercamp) until its purchase in 1836 by the eighth Prince Eugène de Ligne, who renovated and decorated it, installing a brand-new main staircase and a great number of luxurious modifications. One of the building's distinctive characteristics is its so-called ‘Pompeii' lounges, a collection of rooms decorated with remarkably beautiful painted murals, gildings, wood carvings and crystal chandeliers. The yellow lounge (whose panels depict scenes from the Trojan War), the gilded lounge (dedicated to Apollo and works of artistic allegory), the green lounge and the hall devoted to Neptune are magnificent panelled rooms which have now been converted into committee or reception rooms and prestige lounges.

Following the death of the Prince of Ligne and his wife, the mansion was sold to the Brussels Tram Company as a location for its head office and a series of shops. It later sold one part, overlooking the Rue Royale, to the French Banking and Deposit Company in 1900 and a second part, ten years later, at the time when the Rue des Colonies was being constructed. After a change of company name in 1975, the building was transferred to SA Réalia – the group's property subsidiary – in 1991. On 2nd April 1998, Immomils SA-Louis de Waele Development formally bought the assets of SA Réalia.

The Hôtel de Ligne – Story of a renovation.

From the time of foundation of the Community assemblies (1971-1972), members of parliament were obliged to use institutional property originally intended for other uses: for example, the Parliament of the French Community used the Senate buildings. The lack of space, the difference in timing between sittings of the Senate and of the Parliament of the French Community and the geographical fragmentation of departments meant that a solution urgently needed to be found – and had to be close to the Hôtel du Greffe, which was intended to be retained.

The purchase of the Hôtel de Ligne by the Immomils SA-Louis de Waele Development property company provided an opportunity at that time, as the company was planning to convert the premises into offices and was looking for a buyer. A financial solution was found with the help of the SMAP, who bought the property to rent it (and perhaps eventually sell it) to Parliament.

The renovation project was entrusted to A.2R.C (Architecture et construction entre rêve et réalité), a company of architects including Michel Verliefden and Brigitte d'Helft, who had recently worked for the Brussels Parliament. The company presented a proposal offering the best possible combination of the requirements of space, technology, appearance and user-friendliness and of the technical and urban restrictions, along with the retention of a number of sections listed by the Heritage Department.

To be precise, Parliament representatives had drawn up the following specification: the creation of a light-filled auditorium overlooking the entire complex, a car park, meeting rooms for the four political groups, reception areas, a secure internal traffic and communications system, access for the disabled, a powerful IT network, etc.

While wishing to avoid façadisme (the practice of marrying an old frontage with a new building), work was required on the interior, with optimal restructuring of all areas. Thanks to the glass roof over both of the courtyards, the large ‘inverted E' building acquired atria, pedestrian and relaxation areas and corridors. It achieves aesthetic and practical separation between the areas set aside for ‘private' internal use (offices, technical areas, etc.) and the sections open to the public. But the most important task in hand was the creation of an auditorium which would sit above the complex without altering the fixed height of the building stipulated in the regulations preventing any divergence from the lines of the overall listed Quartier Royal complex. The solution was to be found in a system of intermediary levels which was created by modifying the central volume, and an auditorium was thus added between the third and fourth floors; this was the most notable change to the building's appearance, as it also required an extension to the rear section of the fourth floor, creating technical areas and a passage connecting the auditorium with two emergency exits.

After 21 months of work, the Parliament of the Wallonia-Brussels French Community symbolically inaugurated its new home on 27th September 2001. The result was universally hailed as a success, and A.2R.C even received an Award from the Cannes MIPIM for its renovation of an old building into office buildings.

The Parliament could now boast that it possessed not only its own auditorium, modern committee rooms (one of which was, however, located in the historic restored lounges) and reception and meeting rooms, but also a showcase for presenting the regularly-visiting members of parliament, national politicians and foreign delegations to the public and the press. The building also has aspirations towards hosting all sorts of literary events, and specifically-commissioned works of art will soon be installed. But above all, it is the home of an institution with its own rich history, characteristics and areas of expertise.

From a unitary to a Federal state - The birth of the Community.

Following the revolution of September 1830, the Belgian nation drew up a fundamental charter; a Constitution implemented on 7th February 1831, which inevitably suffered from being a product of its time. The first signs of a division between the north and south of the country gradually appeared, and the distance between the two Communities grew increasingly wider.

Among the proposed solutions were the language laws, which represented a first step in the attempt to ease Community tensions. The law of 8th November 1962 established a geographical linguistic boundary and adapted the boundaries of the provinces, arrondissements and communes accordingly. The country was thus divided into four linguistic regions: three monolingual regions (French, Dutch and German-speaking) and one bilingual region, Bruxelles-Capitale.

Citizens living in border regions enjoy a so-called ‘assisted' régime allowing coexistence between French speakers and Dutch speakers on one hand and French speakers and German speakers on the other.

The search for harmony between the two main communities can be summarised in five main points:

Firstly, the revision to the Constitution on 24th December 1970 introduced the first components of a federal system and recognised three cultural communities (French, Dutch and German-speaking) and three regions (Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels).

Next, the laws of August 1980 granted increased autonomy to the Communities and Regions.

Thirdly, voting for the special law of 8th August 1988 modified the special institutional reform law of 8th August 1980. For the Communities, the main practical outcome of this was a wide expansion of jurisdiction, taking the form of Community responsibility for teaching, the protection of children, audiovisual advertising and press assistance. Furthermore, financing was subsequently based on objective criteria, assigning them a share of tax raised from individuals, TV and radio licence fees and VAT.

Fourthly, in 1993, the insertion and modification of a series of Articles into the Constitution and the adoption on 16th July 1993 of special and ordinary laws put the finishing touches to the nation's federal structure. The main aim of this new reform was to emphasise, within the Belgian nation and its various component parts, the characteristic traits which enable a nation to describe itself as ‘federal'.

Lastly, the Lambermont (October 2000) and Saint-Polycarpe (January 2001) agreements consisted on the one hand of new financing measures for the Communities and an extension of the tax jurisdiction of the Regions, and on the other hand, of the transfer of various areas of jurisdiction to the Communities and Regions.

The French Community of Belgium – its bodies, jurisdictions and instruments.

The Parliament of the Wallonia-Brussels French Community is the assembly which represents the French-speaking population of the regions of Wallonia and Bruxelles-Capitale. It consists of 75 elected members acting as members of the Walloon parliament and 19 members elected by the French linguistic group of the Council of the Bruxelles-Capitale Region within the former body. These members are elected for a term of five years. This number can subsequently be revised under the terms of the constituent autonomy of the Communities, providing the proportional split between Wallonia and Brussels is not affected.

The Parliament shares legislative power with the Government of the French Community. It enjoys the right to initiate legislation and exercises this power by voting on decrees. It examines and approves the Community's budget on a yearly basis. As well as voting on decrees, the Parliament elects its own government members and exercises political control over this government.

Community jurisdiction can be divided into five areas, which simultaneously cover teaching, training and research, cultural issues, health and social security, the protection of the French language and international relations.

To ensure its own survival and ability to perform its various tasks, the French Community requires financing. The mechanisms for financing the Communities are based on the Constitution and the Special Law of 16th January 1989 regarding the financing of the Communities and Regions, modified by the Special Law of 16th July 1993.

Community income is thus provided by the tax shares allocated by the Federal government, radio and television licensing, the Federal government's assistance with the financing of university teaching provided to foreign students, various income such as the sale of publications, museum entrance fees, tuition fees, gifts and bequests, proceeds from educational heritage sales or even through borrowing.

With regard to its expenditure and income, the French Community has found itself facing serious budget-balancing problems on a number of occasions.

However, the two most recent reforms, signed as a result of the so-called Saint-Polycarpe and Saint-Boniface agreements, have given the French Community a new and improved range of financial options.

The Saint-Polycarpe agreements led to the adoption of the Special Law of 13th July 2001, covering the refinancing of the Communities and the extension of the Regions' tax jurisdiction. The aim of this reform was the structural modification of financing for the Flemish and French Communities in order to energise the resources at their disposal.

The Saint-Boniface agreements allocate the budgets at the disposal of the French Community for the following ten years through the financing obtained by the Saint-Polycarpe agreements and through the interim dividend produced by the Regions of Wallonia and Brussels. The terms of this agreement between the French-speaking regions were set down in the Decree of 12th July 2001, which aimed to improve the practical situation for primary and secondary education establishments.

Since the Saint-Polycarpe agreements set the budgetary framework for the French Community ten years in advance, the Government has decided to make present and future budgets part of an internal stablility programme. A specific fund, known as the French Community Écureuil Fund and partially serving the purpose of refinancing itself, thus aims to ensure the budgetary future of the French Community through the accumulation of reserves in order to avoid the direct structural spending of the entire funds provided by Federal government.

Excerpt of the book "The Parliament of the French community of Belgium - The French-speaking Parliament of Wallonia and Brussels", published by Editions "La Renaissance du Livre", Tournai