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

(Hardback)

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What makes a capital city In this first comprehensive look at the architectural and urban visions for a European capital, Hein examines how these visions compare to the reality of the three headquarter cities for the European Union - Strasbourg, Luxembourg, and Brussels. Tracing the history of the EU and its creation of the new political entity of the polycentric capital, Hein explores the impact that European unification has on visionary projects and the transformation of EU member cities. Widely researched, the book also brings in architectural projects that have remained largely unknown until now. Using architectural and urban history as a lens, Hein examines the past five decades of European unification. Also analysed for the first time are the debates, plans, projects, and constructions, both realized and failed, that accompanied this process. Looking to the future, Hein asserts that the task of these three capital cities is to balance the needs of a collective Europe with national, local, and - increasingly - regional demands.

Reviews

"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."-Jean-Louis Cohen, Institute of Fine Art, New York University
"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
"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
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
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
[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
"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
"[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

Author Bio

CAROLA HEIN is Assistant Professor at Bryn Mawr College in the Growth and Structure of Cities Program. She was trained in Hamburg (Diplom-Ingenieurin) and Brussels (Architecte) and obtained her doctorate at the Hochschule fur bildende Kunste in Hamburg in 1995 on the topic of Hauptstadt Europa. From 1995 to 1999 she was a Visiting Researcher at Tokyo Metropolitan University and Kogakuin University, researching the reconstruction of Japanese cities after World War II and the Western influence on Japanese urban planning. She has published and lectured widely on topics of contemporary and historical architectural and urban planning in Europe and Japan, and co-authored the volume Hauptstadt Berlin and co-edited Rebuilding Urban Japan after 1945 (2003).