European Beauty

Every summer, millions of Europeans travel to Italy, Greece or the South of France to visit and admire wonderful architecture or to wander through cozy countryside villages where time seems to stand still. They will spend fortunes to book charming little hotels or drink Apérol’s in the shade of a little Italian town square. Billions and billions of photos, reels and stories will be shared online, boasting about this experience, praising the local culture. For reasons I still can’t understand, these same people then return home and build things like this:

Four shades of Millenial Grey.

Obviously, it is definitely not my intention to publicly shame the owner of this house. The image does serve as the perfect example of a worrisome trend in Western Europe: minimalist millennial grey. How have we convinced ourselves that monochrome cubes, lacking the tiniest little ornaments to cheer up facades are the pinnacle of modern luxury? It can’t be a money-issue, as the 3 beautiful premium cars parked in front of the house are (combined) more expensive than an average Belgian house. Which brainwashing did we undergo to reject our traditional styles and opt for this visual sewage?

Take some time to really appreciate the incredible attention to detail that went into constructing this ‘ordinary’ italian appartment.

Belgians