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Exhibition „Design of a European Embassy“ at the international architectural congress UIA 2005 in Istanbul from 1st to 10th July 2005

“No”. This was the reaction of the French and Dutch people to the new European Constitution. Does this mean that the French and the Dutch People are also against the European Integration? Or, were the content of the Constitution just a clincher?

To answer such questions is quite difficult as there are more hidden and deeper factors involved in the matter.  Furthermore besides the fact that 45 percent and 40 percent of the French and Dutch people respectively, voted in favour of the Constitution, many Europeans still cannot identify themselves with the Brussels-Europe of the lobbyists.

In order to contribute positively against such prolonged tendency, about five years ago two architects Faruk Murat and Jörg Seifert founded the initiative ‘Yourope’ at the University of Applied Sciences , in Constance , Germany . The main task of their initiative was to stimulate a discussion about the self-image of the Europeans.

How can Europe be represented in the world? What kind of a self-image do the Europeans have? Where are the boundaries of Europe ?

These and similar questions were asked to students from over 500 European Universities within the scope of the international competition entitled “Design of a European Embassy”. The competition was under the patronage of Mrs. Viviane Reding, former Member of the EU-Commission (Education and Culture) and supported/funded by the companies Siemens and Vectorworks.

Lots of books and articles have been written about the future of Europe . However, in order to use architecture as a vehicle for political discussion, both Faruk Murat and Jörg Seifert wanted to make use of an unusual way to interpret Europe . The task of these two architects was to reach a wider public, a wider audience mainly by presenting a new image of the European identity.

The huge response from participants from all over the world(a total of 1800 students registered and 437 projects were submitted on March 2000) demonstrated great interest among architectural students who expressed major political ideas in terms of architectural language.

In order to conclude the competition the German Heinrich-Böll-Foundation and Yourope organized the "Architecture and Identity" symposium at the European Parliament in Brussels .

High-ranking representatives from the political and architectural fields discussed themes such as: the connection between existing supranational European structures and the European identity; the symbolic conversion of political visions into an appropriate architectural language; and modern forms of representation.

Marc Luyckx, a former member of the Forward Study Unit of the European Commission and speechwriter for President Delors and President Santer for a period of ten years, stated that “ the European Union will never become a state.” With regards to the representation of the new Europe , Mr Luyckx said “ in concept and in practice, it will certainly not be the United States of Europe. That's all from the past. And we must be proud because we are the first ‘atelier politic’, we are a political laboratory where we are called by history, to create something new, completely new. That is probably what should be represented in that building, in that embassy.” – the Design of the European Embassy.

The best 20 projects (selected by a high-ranking jury in Brussels) together with the results of the symposium “Architecture and Identity” will be exhibited at the international architectural congress UIA 2005 in Istanbul from 1^st to 10^th July 2005.

The exhibition will take place in Turkey which is an interesting place to discuss the concept of the European identity, since Turkey is considered both European and Asian. "I was recently in Turkey . It is an incredible energy-rich country, which works on most different visions on a concept of a south-eastern Europe . They are not begging to be part of the EU, but they understand their candidature as a challenge to think about what they want to be. Especially the new EU Members and the candidates understand the creative dimension of the Europe . The Mentality at the EU-Periphery seems to be - in my opinion - more European than the established in the centre of Europe , where people are lusterless and afraid in respect of many new faces."
(Rem Koolhaas in an interview together with Jörg Häntzschel and Reinier the Graaf. Source: Süddeutsche Zeitung, German Daily News Paper from 3rd June 2005 . Orig ina l in German. Tranlated by Yourope).

Further information about the congress is available on the Internet: http://www.uia2005istanbul.org