BUREU wants to develop a transnational and multidisciplinary framework for the analysis of EU administrative buildings. The project addresses the topic from a cultural history perspective but is enriched by methods from architectural history, political science, and ethnography. Focusing on the administrations of the Commission (the core executive body), the Council (the intergovernmental body), and the Court, the project seeks to open the architectural „black box“ of EU administrative buildings in order to analyse how the design and functional organisation of office buildings have shaped the bureaucratic functioning of the EU between the 1950s and 2000. Through this focus on the spatial and embodied aspects of key EU institutions, BUREU seeks to add to earlier research on EU architecture, which has mainly been concerned with architectural representation (i.e. the symbolism couched in the exterior of buildings) and urban planning. By „moving beyond the facades“, BUREU wants to deconstruct the tacit assumption present in the majority of EU research that office buildings are little more than „neutral shells“ for political and administrative activities.

As such, BUREU will investigate how managerial and architectural theories on „rational“ office work functioned as normative models for EU office buildings, and how these theories affected the political and administrative activities performed therein. Which ideological elements (social, political and gendered) underpinned these models? How were the models realised through design? Which expectations and tensions arose when they were put into practice? Did spatial regimes vary according to the respective EU entities (Commission, Council, Court), and if so, was there a perception that these variations affected the „administrative power“ or „governing capacity“? Through such questions, BUREU aims at enriching the cultural history of European integration.

BUREU is a collaboration between C2DH and the Department of History at the KU Leuven. The research team currently consists of Prof. Dr. Andreas Fickers (C2DH), Prof. Dr. Martin Kohlrausch (KU Leuven), Dr. Jens van de Maele (C2DH), and a PhD student at KU Leuven. The student selected for the vacant PhD position at C2DH is expected develop a case study on EU institutions in Luxembourg.

The yearly gross salary for every PhD at the University of Luxembourg is EUR 38,028 (full time).