EU office buildings between architectural “hardware” and managerial “software” (1950s-2000) (BUREU)

How did the interiors of EU office buildings affect the process of European integration on the level of everyday material and bureucratic practices?

The project at a glance

Start date:

01 Jun 2022
Duration in months:

52
Funding:

FNR / The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO)
Principal Investigator(s):

Andreas Fickers

Martin Kohlrausch (external)

About

The historical research project BUREU investigates which design choices were made in relation to the interiors of the European Union’s office buildings in Luxembourg and Brussels (1950s – early 2000s). More concretely, BUREU seeks to answer the question which managerial ideas were at the root of these office interior designs.

The notion of “efficient management” had become highly important in virtually every large organisation since the start of the twentieth century. How this “efficiency” could be stimulated and facilitated through architectural design, however, has been a continual matter of debate between various groups (architects, managerial specialists, architectural clients, and so on). Indeed, every time an office building was built or rented, crucial choices were to be made. How could the employees’ material working environment be made to fit the organisation’s leading ideas on efficient work organisation? Using a metaphor from the world of the computer, we refer to this material working environment as “hardware”, while we define the leading ideas on work organisation as “software”. Using another metaphor from the same field, we consider the office as a so-called “interface” between this hardware and software. Offices were, in other words, places where the two components met and blended into a whole.

By retracing the debate on the “ideal” relation between “hardware” (office interior design) and “software” (managerial ideas) in relation to the major EU institutions, we inquire if – and how – the powerful political ideal of an “efficient” Union was translated into “efficient” interior architecture. By investigating the perceptions of EU officials, we will additionally try to unearth which effects certain design choices had on the everyday activities on these officials.

Ultimately, BUREU wants to contribute to our collective understanding of the historical roots of concepts such as
efficiency, office work, and, of course, the integration process driven by the EU.

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