The Capital of Europe Architecture and Urban Planning for the European Union

Subjects:

• Architecture & Planning » Architecture
• Architecture & Planning » Planning
• Political Science » Comparative Politics
• Multicultural Studies » European Studies

Reviews:

• This book gives a very comprehensive overview of the complex process of European capital construction. It provides a wealth of information on the process of European integration, on the evolution of the capital city idea within Europe and of the numerous planning, urban design and architectural projects, both built and un-built. At the same time - an this is a great merit of the author - the narrative of the book remains very clear and concise.
  —Journal of Housing and the Built Environment 2007
• Hein explores past, present, and future efforts to represent Europe and European unity through the architecture and urban design for a European capital, whether embodied in a single monumental center or a polycentric group of headquarters cities such as now exists in Strasbourg, Luxembourg, and Brussels. Issues of design, aesthetics, local versus regional politics, and urban functionality all come under discussion. The achievement of architects and planners in each of these cities is critically assessed in terms of their particular geographic contexts and their ability to symbolize the European system and its citizens.
  —Art Book News Annual January 2006
• [A] major and important study of how something of the ideal of a European Union has been realized in bricks and mortar, glass and cement... Hein offers us a rare insight into what the EU means within current political discourse ... This study also demonstrates a level of scholarship that is highly admirable ... This is a very important book for understanding the architecture of the EU and should be required reading on any course: political, historical, architectural or planning which deals with the realities of the EU today and the future. It would also be excellent if it were made required reading for all MEPS!
  —Planning Perspectives July 2006

• Endorsement From Jean-Louis Cohen,
  Institute of Fine Art,
  New York University: "Carola Hein narrates the untold saga of Europe's search for a capital city, an adventurous enterprise engaged decades before the creation of the first European community in 1952. Politicians, planners and architects worked on dozens of locations and urban concepts before selecting the tri-city pattern involving Strasbourg, Luxembourg and Brussels. Thanks to innumerable archival sources, encounters with witnesses and on-site investigation, Carola Hein has documented this process, unearthing scores of unknown and sometimes spectacular designs, from monumental schemes to modernist statements. This pursuit of an elusive center reveals, thanks to her analysis, the intensity of the competitive exchange that has produced contemporary European architectural culture."

Table of Contents:

• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Introduction: European Identities and the Capital City Question
• Imagining Built Europe
• Envisioning the Center: World Cities and International Buildings as Precursors to the European Capital Debate
• Urban Visions and Architectural Symbols for a United Europe 1945-1968
• Building the European Communities From Within: Competitions for a Capital in 1952 and 1958
• Building Europe's Image
• Strasbourg: Parliamentary Capital of Europe
• Luxembourg: Judicial Capital of Europe
• Brussels: Executive Capital of Europe
• Conclusion: Rethinking Capitals and Europe
• Appendix
• Glossary of European Organizations and Institutions
• Selected Biographical Notes
• Timeline
• Archival References
• Select Bibliography
• Index