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| - Fact Check: Visualisation of a project in Belgium passed off as swanky Ambedkar library in US
Pictures are being circulated on social media of a building, claiming that it is a library in the US named after Dr BR Ambedkar.
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India Today Fact Check
The image is a visualisation of a work-in-progress residential-cum-commercial building in Belgium. The original image is edited to add the "Jay bhim" board.
A stunning image of a building with "Jay bhim" written on it is viral on social media with a claim that it is a library in the United States named after Dr BR Ambedkar - also known as Father of the Indian Constitution.
The text in Hindi superimposed on the viral image translates to "This is the outside view of Babasaheb library in the US."
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be false. The image is a visualisation for a work-in-progress residential-cum-commercial building in Belgium. The original image is edited to add the "Jay bhim" board and the Ambedkar image.
The archived versions of similar posts can be seen here, here and here.
AFWA probe
A closer look at the image in question clearly shows that the board "Jay bhim" as well as the photo of Ambedkar is morphed into the original image. Also, Jai is mispronounced as Jay and Bhim referring to BR Ambedkar, is written in lower case instead of the capital first letter.
With a reverse image search, we found the same image without the "Jay bhim" board on the image-sharing site Pinterest.
The description to the image read, "Vincent Callebaut has revealed proposed plans to transform a once industrial area of Brussels into a mixed-use eco-neighborhood."
With further keyword search using "Vincent Callebaut" and "eco-neighborhood", we found the same image on the website of an architecture company, Vincent Callebaut Architectures.
According to the information provided on this website, the image is that of a work-in-progress building for residential and commercial purposes at Tour & Taxis in Brussels, Belgium. Tour & Taxis is a large former industrial site in Brussels.
We also found multiple blogs on the same project published in January 2017.
According to these blogs, the Tour & Taxis project is being done by Belgian ecological designer Vincent Callebaut, who is known for his green and sustainable architecture.
We also found the original version of the viral image posted on Vincent Callebaut's Instagram page.
allebaut in the post description wrote the project will be a mixed-use space comprising professional activities (offices, workshops, etc.), retail activites (markets, showrooms, shops etc.) and public amenities. However, no special mention of a library space was found.
A similar claim was debunked in 2019 by Factly.
Here is an image comparison between the viral image and the original image uploaded by Callebaut on his Instagram page.
Hence it is clear that the viral photo in question is not from America but a visualization of a project in Belgium and is edited to add a "Jay bhim" board on it.
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