The EU is a unique experiment in shared governance. This book addresses this process from the prism of architecture, a discipline that has had close ties with power throughout history. By examining several substantial architectural productions developed by the EU since the 1950s, this book asks a question that has so far been unexplored: why is it so difficult for the EU to engage with architecture? This book theorizes a form of reluctance towards architecture and identifies its underlying causes, addressing the tension between the national and the supranational, the historical bond between architecture and the state, the shortage of acceptable images of Europe, the functionalist culture of the European institutions, as well as the legal constraints that have limited their operations in the built environment.

• First book on the architecture of the EU institutions

• Most comprehensive explanation of why the EU is reluctant to engage with architecture

• Interdisciplinary book which is of interest to scholars of architecture and European studies alike