Uproar over ‘scandalous’ architecture is becoming a regular feature on social media – whether it concerns the Steen in Antwerp, the Gravensteen in Ghent, the extension of the Museum of Fine Arts in Tournai or the renovation of the town hall in Leuven. Traditional media are only too happy to blow such a scandal out of proportion. It takes a real stickler to point out that these projects often went through an exemplary process, or that the fuss is about trivialities or misinformation. As a result, the real questions about such a project get buried. Sensationalism is confused with ‘public support’, with ‘the opinion of the man in the street’ and even ‘democracy’. But this kind of lazy journalism actually undermines democracy by sidestepping the real questions. In other words: lazy journalism is a threat to high-quality architecture. And not just that.

When a minor uproar broke out in April 2021 over the renovation of the Steen in Antwerp by noA Architects, I – to be honest – was also taken aback by the image that emerged in the press. It was a classic case of ‘image-making’: the clever person who took that one photo had chosen their vantage point very well. You simply had no idea how that ‘boring’ office façade related to the whole of the new and old façades, nor did you see the refinement of the detailing. You saw only a striking contrast in style. When I visited the building later, I noticed that there was no question of boredom here, but rather an almost exuberant historical imagination (see A 294).