Europe is also architecture. When Jacques Derrida counts philosophy, democracy and the
Enlightenment, architecture is an essential gap. There is a number of artistic
expressions, but amongst them architecture, as the space that we live in, plays an
exposed role. Architecture is a criterion, a tradition that truly belongs to Europe. A
debate on the architectural artistic representation of Europe from the past to the future
will consolidate a place for Europe in the world. And this place does not, at least not in
the principal sense, yield to the imperialist tradition. On the contrary, Europe’s
architecture consists mainly of civilian or clerical buildings. Built architecture though is
subject to its deterioration, while the intellectual achievement of architectural projecting
and design are what will be left of Europe’s history. Architectural ideas are almost
timeless as they always negotiate ourselves in our environment. But ideas are rarely
acknowledged as deserved. In most cases, architecture that does not meet today’s
needs is considered as part of building archaeology. But there is much more in historic
architecture, a wealth of inspirations. Architecture has always been more than buildings.
This artistic surplus needs to be exposed, to be presented as a timeless intellectual
achievement that goes far beyond its original historical intention. For this we have
developed a method that visualizes architectonic ideas. The presentation aims to
demonstrate and illustrate this method by several projects developed by the authors in
cooperation with archaeological research institutions like Cologne Cathedral and its
Predecessors (by order of and exhibited in Cologne Cathedral), The Metropolis of
Pergamon (within the German Research Fund Excellence Cluster TOPOI, actually
exhibited in Leipzig as part of Sharing Heritage, the European Cultural Heritage Year
2018), The Palatine Palaces (by order of the German Archaeological Institute, both latter
exhibited in the Pergamon Museum Berlin).