drawing

On the one hand, this is a generous and inclusive gesture, to create a new building for a union of nations out of the obsolete building elements of these nations. A literal ‘patchwork of cultures’ perhaps. However, there is a peculiar irony here, in a building of the European Union being clad in windows that the very same organisation deemed obsolete. Such is the complexity of environmental sustainability regulation, that in order to legislate against wasting energy (in the heating of inefficient buildings) requires the waste of building material. By incorporating these windows into its facades, the Europa building makes a symbolic (and real) contribution to this issue. A secondary double glazed skin 2.7m behind the timber façade forms the building’s thermal envelope, conforming to building code, which also serves as a ‘shield’ to satisfy European executive security requirements.

These drawings capture a particular moment in architecture’s attempts to address climate change, illustrating the complex interplay of government regulation and building material.