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Bram de Maeyer, "Building for Belgium: Belgian Embassies in a Globalising World (1945-2020)" (Leuven UP, 2025)
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- [00:00]
A
Hello, everybody. This is Marshall Po. I'm the founder and editor of the New Books Network. And if you're listening to this, you know that the NBN is the largest academic podcast network in the world. We reach a worldwide audience of 2 million people. You may have a podcast, or you may be thinking about starting a podcast. As you probably know, there are challenges basically of two kinds. One is technical. There are things you have to know in order to get your podcast produced and distributed. And the second is, and this is the biggest problem, you need to get an audience. Building an audience in podcasting is the hardest thing to do today. With this in mind, we at the NBM have started a service called NBN Productions. What we do is help you create a podcast, produce your podcast, distribute your podcast, and we host your podcast. Most importantly, what we do is we distribute your podcast to the NBN audience. We've done this many times with many academic podcasts, and we would like to help you. If you would be interested in talking to us about how we can help you with your podcast, please contact us. Just go to the front page of the New Books Network and you will see a link to NBN Productions. Click that, fill out the form, and we can talk. Welcome to the New Books Network.
- [01:07]
B
Hello, and welcome to another episode on the New Books Network. I'm one of your hosts, Dr. Miranda Melcher, and I'm very pleased today to be speaking with Dr. Bram de Merch about his book titled Building for Belgium, Belgian Embassies in a Globalizing World, 1945-2020, published by Leuban University Press in 2025. Now, this is a really interesting book because it takes us into a type of building that we know is important, but we don't necessarily think of as buildings. Right. Embassies are the representation of one country inside of another. And so they have all sorts of important sort of political purposes. You know, they're in spy novels. Like, they show up all the time, but we don't often think about like, well, hang on a second, they're still buildings, and where are they built? In those capital cities of other countries? How are they built? What do they look like? What are they physically constructed to do in order to have all of these political, economic, social purposes? And this book helps us kind of answer and investigate some of those questions. Looking at a variety of different embassies built at different times, with all sorts of different geopolitics going on to help investigate these buildings where all sorts of things happen. And yet usually we don't focus on the structures in which they are occurring. So, Bram, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast to tell us about your book.
- [02:28]
C
Thanks, Miranda, also for having me. And also the wonderful introduction on the topic of embassy buildings, a really interesting building commission. So I'm really glad we can talk about embassies today and the book.
- [02:41]
B
Well, I'm clearly eager for this too. And in fact, on the subject of introductions, can you please introduce yourself a little bit and tell us why you decided to write this book? What particular questions are you asking within this overall project of investigating embassies?
- [02:57]
C
Yes, so I first studied history at University of Antwerp between 2013 and 2017. And I was always interested in the aspect of political representation. So how do state actors invest in buildings, in words to represent themselves to an audience, a domestic audience or a foreign audience. And when I was completed, when I completed my study of history at the University of Antwerp, there was an interesting job application for a PhD project at Kloeuven, the Faculty of Architecture. So I'm not trained as an architect. That's one important thing to take into account. But I saw job application, I thought, okay, I will, I will give it a shot, maybe I can come for an interview. And luckily I was given the tremendous opportunity to study Belgian embassies for four years. So the project was already conceived by my two supervisors, Professor Freddy Floret and Professor Anne Franz Vas Morel. And yeah, they gave me the opportunity to study Belgian purpose built embassies. And so the book that we're now talking about today is based on the PhD dissertation that I did at KU Leuven. And yeah, the overarching question, the overarching question of the book is to what extent did the Belgian Ministry of Foreign affairs invested in the architectural conception of their purpose built embassies to project national identity abroad, to project diplomatic missions abroad by means of architecture, interior design and artwork. So that's really the scope of the book.
- [04:39]
B
Okay, that's helpful. That gives us a bunch of things to discuss further. But I think what I want to pick up on next is the phrase you used there of purpose built embassies. So what do you mean by that? And why do you focus on these?
- [04:51]
C
Yes, so normally the Belgian Ministry of Foreign affairs, they tend to buy an existing property or lease an existing property in a foreign capital because that's more convenient when the structure is already there and you can make maybe some small alteration works, you can to fit the building more into an embassy. But in some specific cases, the Belgian Ministry of Foreign affairs has constructed embassies abroad. And of course, that is a really interesting building commission because they start from a blank page. They have to select a building site, they have to select an architect, they have to give some cues to the architect in terms of style, in terms of form, in terms of materiality. And so the ministry has to take different choices along the way. And when we can study those different choices along the way, we can also puzzle to what extent did they invest in architecture and what kind of an image do they want to project abroad? And so purpose built embassies, they're a really interesting lens to delve into that specific topic because we start from scratch. There is a building site with nothing on it. And the Belgian Ministry of Foreign affairs, they start to construct something. So that is a really interesting building commission to study.
- [06:16]
B
Yeah, this idea of starting from scratch, I think is really interesting because as you said, there's kind of like loads of decisions that have to be made. So if we're at that starting point, what are the key factors in deciding to build an embassy? Like, who even is making that decision? Is it the ambassador of the embassy? Like, what does that starting point look like?
- [06:37]
C
Yes. So of course there are the needs in terms of housing. The embassy is in need of housing. And an embassy, it consists always of two sections. On the one side you have the ambassadorial residence, where the ambassador and his or her family resides for the duration of the ambassadorship. And it's of course a housing unit, it's a residence. But a lot of social activities also take place in the residence. So dinner parties, cocktail parties, receptions, art exhibitions and stuff like that. That is one side. And then you have the second part of an embassy, that's the chancery. And the chancery, that's the bureaucratic part, that's where the offices are situated. And in some cases, for example, the chancery is deemed too small and they want to build a new building. That was the case in Washington D.C. in the 1950s, where the Belgian ambassador at the time, it was Baron Robert Silvercra, he deemed that the chancery building had become too small because the Belgian diplomatic staff was increasing as the transatlantic alliance became ever more important and the staff was increasing and they needed more offices. And that was, for example, the trigger to construct a new embassy. But it can be housing needs, but it can also be a little bit flexing your diplomatic muscles. Also abroad, there's now the case recently in the media where the Chinese government government is building a new embassy in London. It's also a little bit diplomatic power play to make your presence known in a foreign capital and make sure that everyone knows that you're there, that there are also aspects that come into play. And another trigger that can incentivize diplomatic missions to build is, for example, when there's a new capital that's being constructed. In the case in my book of Canberra in Australia or Brasilia in Brazil, there is a new purpose built capital. And of course in the capital city, all the embassies are also situated. So the embassies had to move, in case of Australia, from Sydney to Canberra. And there the housing market wasn't really well developed and they had also to build embassies from scratch. So there are different kind of triggers that can incentivize Belgium to build abroad. But normally Belgium, they don't have the habit of building. That's not really their preferred housing strategy. They prefer to buy or exist to buy or lease an existing property. But in some cases they have, they have built, but it's not their cup of tea or their real area of expertise to do so.
- [09:36]
B
Yeah, lots of different kinds of expertise really would be needed in addition to sort of a permissions level issue here. Right. Because embassies, as I mentioned at the beginning, are obviously built in someone else's country. So does the host nation have any influence or say on what gets built and what it looks like?
- [09:54]
C
Yes, absolutely. You have to secure a building permit to, to construct a new embassy. And in the case of Canberra in Australia, the book also delves into the discussions between on the one side, the local authorities in Canberra and the Belgian Ministry of Foreign affairs on the other side. And there's a little bit, some, sometimes a tug of war between both because you want to construct something that, that is not really some, that is not really the cup of tea of the local authorities. And there then there is a little bit of diplomatic wheeling and dealing to find some kind of a compromise. You also have to take into account your neighbors that live in the proximity of the embassy. And they're not always really funds that an embassy is constructed in their neighborhood because it's also, as you just said, a building that is closely associated with espionage and a little bit in Triche and stuff like that, and also security concerns, of course. And so it's not always that the neighborhood is always really thrilled to welcome an embassy in their area. So just as any other building commission, you have to secure a building permit, of course, to construct and you have to present your plans to the local authorities, to the local bureaucrats to obtain permission to build. And sometimes you're being sent back to the drawing board to start from scratch because the design isn't deemed appropriate for what you want to build in the foreign capital. Yes.
- [11:29]
B
Okay, that's helpful to understand when we're thinking then, about these different influences that go into it in terms of the ambassador, the host country, that kind of thing. Can you give us some examples of where that's actually sort of played out to make these ideas more concrete?
- [11:43]
C
So the first case study is Washington, D.C. and the entire building project was really the brainchild of Ambassador Robert Silverkas. He deemed that embassy architecture was really something that Belgium had to invest to also showcase to the United States that Belgium was a partner that was truly committed to the transatlantic alliance, and they really wanted to cement this bilateral relationship by means of brick and mortar by really building something. But the superiors at the Ministry of Foreign affairs, they weren't really thrilled with the building plans proposed by Ambassador Silvergass. And he really had to lobby with Brussels. He had to call upon his political friends and allies in Brussels to persuade the Ministry of Finance to allocate the necessary funding, also to persuade Paul Henry Spaquet the time it was the foreign minister, because they weren't really thrilled to build, because building is not really the preferred housing strategy of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So there was a lot of negotiations that took place. I think the first idea of Silverkast to build was in 1945, when he just arrived as a new ambassador, and the building project only started in 1956. So it took him almost 11 years to find a compromise to build, and a lot of political wheeling and dealing that took place. So that is one aspect that the ambassador, he really wants to build something, and he calls upon his political allies to get the green light. Another aspect that can trigger Belgium to build abroad is, as I discussed previously, that the receiving state, so where the embassy is situated, that they try to convince Belgium to build in their capital. So that was the case in Canberra, in Australia, in Brasilia, also in Brazil, and also in the case of Warsaw in Poland. Because after the Second World War, the entire city center of Warsaw was reduced to rubble because of the Polish uprising in 1944. And a lot of historic buildings were also destroyed during that time. But after the Second World War, when there was a new Communist regime, they didn't have the funding at the time to reconstruct all of the historical buildings and palaces at the time. And so there was one war Thorn palace, the Minisch palace, it's called. And the Polish government reached out to Belgium and they said, we have an interesting proposition for you. If you can put the necessary money on the table to reconstruct this palace, you can use the palace as the seat of your embassy for 99 years to have a long term lease. So that was one mechanism that triggered Belgium to build abroad. Another one is also economic diplomacy. For instance, in 1980 that Belgium commissioned really an architectural marvel embassy in New Delhi, because New Delhi was becoming ever more important because of the liberalization of the economy. And Belgium, of course, is an export orientated economy. So it was really important to have an embassy building with a certain sense of, of grandeur, of monumentality, to host economic missions, to have a really fitting decor, to negotiate with Indian entrepreneurs and business people. So that is also an important mechanism that triggered Belgium to build the product. Yes. So those are the main impetuses to build a product.
- [15:25]
B
Yeah, those examples are really helpful. And it's in fact that last example I'd love to talk about more because obviously, as you mentioned, in that case, it wasn't just about we want to build an embassy here for economic reasons. It was we want to build an embassy and it needs to look a certain way. So how do those decisions get made and who makes them? Is it as simple as the minister says, hey, architect, make me something epic looking? And then the architect sort of interprets that, like, how do those sorts of decisions get made?
- [15:53]
C
Yes. So in the book, I uncover that there is really a transformation taking place. So the first building project of the 1950s, the Washington, Washington Chancery, there were really design cues coming from the ambassador and from the Minister of Foreign Affairs. And they really said, okay, we want to construct an embassy building that blends into the local architectural context of Washington D.C. so they constructed the stripped classicist building that also resonated quite well with the public architecture in Washington D.C. for example, the Pentagon Building and other ones. And they also really set, okay, we want to include Belgian applied materials. So, for example, Belgian marble was included. Also Congolese woodwork was concluded because at the time Belgium was still a colonial power. And they also wanted to include such materials to resonate their status as a colonial power. Also Belgian made furniture was also included and artwork. But that was really the last project. It was the first project of the book, but it was also the last project in terms of the overarching building policy and practice, where they really invested in projecting some kind of a national identity in written form to the architect. But if we look to the following building project, the aspect of national representation, or even giving design cues to the ambassador to the architect. It is not really well formulated. It is more that the architect almost gets a carte blanche. And along the way adjustments are being made. And that is of course, one of the things we have to take into account with regard to Belgium is that the entire aspect of national identity or of nationhood, it becomes ever more something questionable because of the different communities and regions making up Belgium, that they get more of a sub national awareness. And it becomes also ever more difficult to project or to define. Okay, but what exactly is Belgian identity? That's even difficult for countries with a strong central government. But in the case of Belgium, with the different linguistic communities making up the country and also turning into a federal country with regional governments, it becomes ever more difficult to. To formulate what exactly is Belgian identity. And you see more and more that the following building projects, they become generic almost. It is more the Belgian flagpole and the Belgian coat of arms included at the facade that tells visitors and people walking past, okay, this is a Belgian embassy, but if we should remove those objects, it can be an embassy of another European country. So that is really something that you can see in the book that, that. Yeah. That you can identify in the different building projects.
- [19:01]
B
Yeah, that's a really interesting aspect to it. And these questions of kind of what makes Belgian culture, what makes something a Belgian embassy as opposed to something else. There's a reason that those questions matter. Right. So what is the link between these design choices and architecture and the actual work of diplomacy that's meant to be happening in these buildings?
- [19:22]
C
Yes, so an embassy building, it is really, you can perceive it as a physical manifestation of the sending state within the capital city of the receiving state. It is almost your national billboard. When your country is involved in some kind of a media story, the journalists and the camera teams, they film the facade of the embassy building. It almost becomes the, the personification of your country. So that is why countries have had the habit to invest in the architecture. How do their embassy buildings look like and also project some kind of an image, some kind of a romanticized image of how they perceive themselves, for example, in the 1950s, in the context of the cultural cold war, it is really telling that the United States, that they commission a lot of modern embassy buildings across the world because they want to project the United States as being a progressive superpower and a country that embraces new ways of working and living and, and wants to get rid with historicism and, and the old styles of the, of the, of the ancient regime. If you would, if you would put it like that really project a new, a new image. So an embassy building, you can almost perceive it as a container by which you can create a self image abroad. So countries would do well to also invest in how do their buildings look like architecturally and also in terms of interior design and artwork included. Because an embassy, the doors are frequently also open for social events, as I recently discussed, just dinner parties and art exhibitions. It is really some kind of little Belgian community on foreign soil. So the people that walk into an embassy, it could be useful that people can get a certain image of Belgium, what is their way of working, their way of living, their way of entertaining, and that can be projected by means of furniture and artwork and interior design as whole. So it's really some kind of a showcase almost. If you would put it like that. Yes.
- [21:49]
B
And are these decisions then about sort of, you know, what painting goes on the wall and what mirror is where. Is that the ambassador? Is that the ministry who is influencing and making those decisions and to what extent does that change over time and place?
- [22:03]
C
Yeah, that's, that's really interesting that you, that you bring up this topic because a few days ago I visited the Ministry of Foreign affairs also to discuss my book. And, and the question that you just touched upon, I also discussed with someone within the ministry and at the start of my book, the 1940s and 50s, the Ambassador, he had a lot of agency and normally they also had some kind of, how do you put it, Aristocratic background. So those were people with money that also had their personal art collection, for instance. And when they became ambassadors somewhere, they just, just shipped their own artwork to the embassy or their own furniture collection to the embassy. But gradually you, you see that there is a democrat democraticization of the, of the diplomatic profession. And yeah, people of different walks of life, they also become ambassador. And you can see that the ministry, they step up their efforts, they start to, they start to invest in their own artwork, build up their own art collection, and then they can make decisions, for instance, that, okay, we have this specific kind of artwork that would be really fitting for ambassadorial residents in South Africa, for instance, because there is a link with the painter or something that is depicted on the painting. So it would be really useful if we could send the artwork over there, there. But what also happens a lot is when, and I'm talking about the present, when a new ambassador here arrives at this new diplomatic posting and he sees an artwork, a piece of art that he doesn't like, that it happens often that they just put it away in the Cellar for the duration of their ambassadorship, because they don't like the artwork put on display. And it's only when someone of the ministry comes over to visit the embassy that, that they. That they notice, oh, but where, where has this artwork gone? And then they have to admit, oh, yeah, we have. We have stuffed it away somewhere because we don't like this kind of. This kind of artwork. So there is some kind of attention also between the people who will reside in the embassy for four years, because an ambassadorship, it usually spans for four years, and of course, the organization who manages those buildings, so the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And between those two, from time to time there can be. There can be some tension, some friction between both, and they have to be reconciled with one another in a true diplomatic fashion. Of course.
- [24:44]
B
Yes. No, lots of diplomacy there. And obviously the cultural aspect is really key, as we've discussed. Is there anything further we want to talk about in terms of the economic work that embassies do?
- [24:53]
C
Yes, that's also something interesting to talk about. So at the chancery, you also have diplomats who are busy with economic diplomacy. And in the case of Belgium, there's an extra layer because the entire aspect of foreign trade and stimulating export, it's a domain of policy that is now part of the regions. So the Flemish government is responsible for boosting Flemish trade abroad. You have to. You have the Walloonian trade agency, you also have the Brussels trade agency, and they all have their different agencies, but they're all situated from normally in. In. In a Belgian embassy. So it's some kind of a. Some kind of a lasagna almost. So you have the federal government, Belgium, then you have the different regions with regional governments with. With their own trade representation. And those trade representatives, they have to boost exports to that country. They have to organize economic missions, and they also use the embassy as almost a base of operations for such economic missions. So at the end of the day, when there was a lot of visits to factories and local companies, at the end of the day, normally there's some kind of reception, a closing dinner party at the embassy to also discuss business, but in a more informal atmosphere. Also a bit of wining and dining in style and loosening of the tongues also, and that it's more easy to, from time to time to also win over lucrative contracts also. So an embassy is, from an economic point of view, also really important in place.
- [26:45]
B
Yeah, that's definitely worth adding into our conversation. One economic aspect of embassies I was intrigued to read about in your book is not just the sorts of things you've just described, but also sometimes the economic help that an embassy seems to be able to provide to its government is by being sold. How does that fit in?
- [27:02]
C
Yes, yes, absolutely. That is the premise of the last chapter in the book. And it coincides with a time where at the beginning of the early 2000s, you had the governments of Hevor Rofstad, who was prime minister at the time, and they used a lot of dubious tricks to balance the budget. So for instance, they sold government buildings, and that generated a lot of money and they could balance the books, but they immediately rented the property that was being sold immediately for 20 or 25 years. And in the long haul you will pay more money in rent than the money that you had as a profit with selling the property. And that was a domestic trend that was going on in Belgium at the time. There were almost 80 or 90 government buildings that were put up for sale to help balance the books. But this tendency, it's also trickled down to the embassy portfolio of Belgium, of the diplomatic real estate portfolio. And an interesting case in point is the embassy in Tokyo in Japan. So the embassy was situated on a really large area, on a really large plot of land in the city center of Tokyo. It was already there in the 1920s. It was a compound embassy. So you had the chancery and the ambassadorial residence, additional housing units, and it was all low rise constructions. And it was, in the case of Tokyo, some kind of an anomal, because at Tokyo it's almost all high rise constructions. And the Belgian government there were really aware that the plot of land that they owned was really valuable in terms of real estate, the market value in the real estate logic. And so in the middle of the 2000s, they sold almost two thirds of the plot of land and it generated almost 400, some 400 million euros. And that money was used to balance the budget. And only on the, on the remaining plot of land, they constructed the high, high rise tower for the new embassy and actually all those different building blocks that were on the embassy before. So the residence and the transferring the housing units, you can almost say that they were, they were stacked upon one another to create that high rise tower. So there's also some kind of an economic logic that comes into play with those new building projects. And also another interesting one is taking on the capacity of landlords. So for instance, the new Kinshasa Chancery in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Belgium has constructed the embassy there, the chancery building, but they also lease office space to the Dutch Embassy and also to the Embassy of Luxembourg. And they bring in, they bring in also rental income for Belgium because of course, the real estate budget isn't really that enormous of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So they have to look for creative solutions to evaluate their diplomatic real estate portfolio from time to time. And that means also selling properties and moving to a rented environment or co housing, diplomatic co housing with the Netherlands or another prevented European ally. So there are all different kinds of strategies that come into play to make it more financially feasible also to operate that entire diplomatic real estate portfolio. And also the current budgetary status of Belgium is not really that great, to put it mildly. So I guess in the future there will be more and more of, of such real estate operations going on.
- [31:02]
B
Yeah, I mean, when you explain it like that, it makes a ton of sense why this would happen. But I have to admit, when I first got to that section of the book, I was like, oh, okay, I wasn't expecting to read about this, but it was fascinating to have you lay it out for us. Was there anything you were surprised by in doing this research?
- [31:18]
C
I was really surprised with how difficult it would be to find primary source material because I had the impression at the start of my research, you have the diplomatic archive of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign affairs and it really contains a lot of paperwork on foreign relations of Belgium and diplomatic correspondence and diplomatic reports and all stuff like that. And I was at the impression that there would be also paperwork related to constructing these buildings abroad. But actually the real estate department of the Ministry of Foreign affairs, they aren't obligated to deposit their, their archives with the, with the diplomatic archive. They have their own archive. But of course that archive is a living archive. So once a building isn't part anymore of the real estate portfolio, all paperwork is also thrown out of the window. Because why do we have to, why do we have to preserve paperwork of a building that is. Isn't anymore part of our real estate portfolio? And so a lot of valuable paperwork has unfortunately been been destroyed over time. And it was really difficult for me to find all of the necessary sources to tell the story that I do in my book. It was, it took a lot of detective work almost and a lot of creativity and also some from time to time making, making presumptions based on previous cases if you don't have the necessary material in writing that you found in source material to put forward in the book. So it was really a really complex jigsaw to make. But at the end it all paid off. But at the beginning, it was really shocking to see that there was not really a lot of paperwork on the historical cases that was preserved.
- [33:18]
B
That is really interesting. Thank you for giving us that peek behind the scenes. What, may I ask, are you doing next? Do you have another jigsaw you're currently working on?
- [33:27]
C
Yes, absolutely. And this jigsaw is even more difficult, if you would put it like that, because I'm working now on a building project that was never even constructed. So my next project will be on the World Exhibition in Rome of 1942. And it was a grand project of Benito Mussolini. He wanted to celebrate 20 years of fascist rule in Italy by organizing a grand world exhibition just south of Rome, creating an entire new city. It was called Espositione Universale di Roma of 1942. And Belgium also had far advanced plans to also construct a national pavilion that there. But of course, the Second World War came in the way of Mussolini's plan to organize this world Exhibition. And, yeah, I'm researching the Belgian pavilion, what it would have looked like if the plans continued as was originally intended. So that is the research project I'm currently working on.
- [34:34]
B
Well, that certainly sounds interesting. Best of luck with that particular construction of the fragments to put together a story.
- [34:41]
C
Yes, thanks. Thank you very much. It will be a daunting task, but that's what I like most. Yes.
- [34:48]
B
Well, if anyone wants to read about your first big, daunting jigsaw puzzle task, they can, of course, look at the book we've been discussing titled Building for Belgian Embassies in a Globalizing World, published by Leuven University Press in 2025. Bram, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast.
- [35:04]
C
Thanks for having me. It was a real pleasure.