Is there really a copyright law that means all Belgian houses must be slightly different? If so, has this had an effect on Belgian architecture?

Flem-ish

Nope. Everybody is allowed to build according to his or her own most individual preferences. Belgians are said to be born "with a brick in their stomach", which means they all want to own their own houses and living in a town council house points to social failure. As Belgians have for centuries been ruled by outsiders ( the French King and the German Emperor in the Middle Ages; then Spain, Austria, Holland) they have developed a basic distrust of all state intervention and government interference with what is after all their very own business. For a Belgian his home is even more his castle than for an Englishman. Already when he begins building, he prefers to be allowed to take his own decisions. One of Belgium's better architecture experts, wrote a book in which he called his own country "the ugliest country in the world", because the result of so much anarchism is indeed a cacophony of building styles. However when a Belgian sees samples of English of Dutch uniformity in building style, his heart bleeds. He tends not to understand that when building, you might take context into consideration. After all his plot of land is his, and nobody has any say on the square metres for which he has paid with his hard-earned savings. Sep 04 03, 3:06 PM

gmackematix

So there doesn't have to be slight differences between every house that is built. What a shame. I always regarded that as one of Belgium's most interesting features! Sep 05 03, 9:26 AM