Ugly Belgian Houses

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Belgian architect Hannes Coudenys makes it his mission to document ugly Belgian houses, see http://uglybelgianhouses.tumblr.com/

The following is from an interview with him:

CT: Where did you get the idea for Ugly Belgian Houses?

HC: I like architecture and have some friends who are architects. Normally, if you like architecture you like good houses, but in Belgium there’s a lot of ugly architecture. So I started taking pictures of it.

CT: How do you find new Ugly Belgian Houses?

HC: I do trips whenever I have a spare hour or when I visit a new client or on the weekend on what I call ‘safaris.’

CT: Do you have certain criteria a house must fulfill before you feature it on your blog? What defines an ugly house?

HC: It’s a feeling. And it’s thinking about my audience. They don’t like the boring ugly houses. Too bad because those boring suburbs filled with the same utter boring houses is what I hate most. I could never live there; they would make my brain dead. Why can’t you be creative? Even on a budget. Those big firms selling those houses should be obligated to be creative. So I go for the greatest, most noticeable ugliness in houses. It’s what I find ugly. I cant forbid anyone to disagree with me, in fact: do disagree! I like to debate. Mostly it’s houses that use a mixture of styles, renovate houses with no aesthetic feel and things like that.

CT: Why do you think Belgium in particular seems to produce such eccentric architecture?

HC: The Dutch have been ruling us, France has been ruling us, we have always had to be brave little Belgians. We were finally being set free and subsidized to do what we want. After school, you find a girl, you get married, and you build your own house, and it’s not OK for it to look like the neighbors’ houses.

https://theculturetrip.com/europe/belgium/articles/meet-the-founder-of-ugly-belgian-houses/

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Following are some examples with his captions by Coudenys, plus as a bonus some reader comments from a Bored Post about him . . . .

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"Architect: ‘What kind of windows would you like?’

Client: ‘Yes’"

Reader comments:

"All of them"

"One of each."

It's weird, but I kinda like it.

When u find a lot of mismatched legos and try to build something

This house could use a few more windows.

I always wondered what the outside of the MC Esher drawing looked like.

The builders must've hated making these, but possibly satisfied at getting rid of the leftover windows from previous homes

Way past ugly and all the way back around to cool

This was MC Escher's house.

Or Pablo Picasso's

I could eat building supplies and puke a better building!

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"FELIX DA HOUSECAT"

Reader comments:

I actually love this one. It's so cute!

They need to get some windows from that other house.

This one brings a whole new meaning to the term "cathouse."

It's a house cat.

Nice pun. I wonder if that was intentional on the creator's part.

Bit of Cat-er-walling there.

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"Game of Stones"

Reader comments:

With different windows, this would be interesting.

I think these houses are kinda quirky and cool tbh lol

This is not a house. It is the backside of the zoo of Antwerp.

The Flintstones' house

When the Nothing swallowed Fantasia the Rock Crusher found a new home.

It's a zoo.. But even if it wasn't, I'd live there. Look at the size of the human sized door! It must be gianormous inside.

Now that place just rocks!

It looks like they robbed a quarry.

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"When u wanted to live in a fairytale but you chose to live in Shrek’s Swamp House"

Reader comments:

SOMEBODY ONCE TOLD ME THE WORLD IS GONNA ROLL ME

I AIN'T THE SHARPEST TOOL IN THE SHEDDDDDDDD

OK I kinda want this one, I live in a townhouse and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY NEIGHBORS LOOK LIKE

This is giving me Alice and Wonderland vibes.

So pretty! I wanna live there! Or be the neighbour across the street, so I see this house anytime I step out of my front door.

The garage is where they keep the UFO?

The opposite of ugly; this is a great-looking house

Weird, but not ugly

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“Textures loading”

Reader comments:

Please restart the computer to proceed with your action.

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

That's what you get if you only managed to pay the architect 50% down payment.

We were going for a certain look, but we said F it halfway.

Wife wanted brown hubby wanted white this is compromise

When you fall asleep halfway

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