Cities (and regions) within a city: subnational representations and the creation of European imaginaries in Brussels

This article explores how sub-national institutions - representations from cities and regions - help create a European imaginary in Brussels. Political scientists and other scholars have noted the importance of these city and regional institutions, but have paid little attention to their physical form. Through a select set of case studies, this article analyses the vast impact that small-scale interventions in the use and re-imagination of select buildings occupied by the subnational institutions have on Brussels' urban form and function. Focusing on representations from German states, notably the city-states of Hamburg and Bremen, and including select other city and regional offices, the present article offers some first ideas of how the physical presence of these small entities transforms European Brussels. It asks how the selection, construction, reuse and restoration of buildings for the subnational institutions reshape the urban patterns of Brussels, how their architecture and external decoration contribute to the creation of a European narrative within the city, and how the institutional actors use Brussels' buildings in their print marketing and web presences constructing entangled European and regional identities.