What happened to the architecture of post-war Europe? It feels like Europe cities are either grandly beautiful or awfully modernist. The old stuff, basically everything from the Romans until the late 19th century, was symmetrical and beautiful. Then came along the modernists, or some other avant-garde movement, and they decided ugly architecture was in. Well, welcome to "new" Straussburg, home of the new European Parliament.
The building had a lot of potential. This was, after all, going to be the seat of the new European Parliament, the legislative arm of the grand European Project. But but the building, like the institution it would ultimately host (especially given the benefit of hindsight), is a little underwhelming. Despite its blockbuster $400mm budget - which still didn't stop big cost overruns - it doesn't quite get across the feel of the "new" Europe, unless the new Europe is supposed include confusing corridors, cheap finishes and a
collapsed ceiling (which, somehow, saved EU taxpayers 1.8mm Euros). There's no doubt it looked great on paper - the central tower geometry is impressive, as is the symmetry of the columns, but there's just something missing. Did they aim for grandeur and miss? Or did the EU consciously decide to make the place feel like a community college?
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| They weren't holding session that day... or the day after... or the day after... |
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| Inside parliament. |
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| Interesting geometry and lighting. |
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| What about 4-8? |
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| It is almost brilliant, but mostly looks like a building out of the Jetsons. |
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| The international court of human rights brings sets a whole new bar for ugly architecture. Is that a refinery? A boiler assembly? WTF? |
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| Not much better from this angle. |
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| But it had so much potential in the blueprints they saw! |
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