The House of European History opens its doors to show its legacy with AV technology

The President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, has opened this museum in the Eastman building in Brussels, whose design and technical development has been carried out by the Spanish company APD, that collects and disseminates the legacy of Europeanism and the EU with technological and audiovisual resources.

With a surface of 4.000 square meters, the newly opened House of European History contribute to disseminating the European Union project and the pro-European movement, based on a design and technical development carried out by Acciona Producciones y Diseño (APD) in collaboration with the European Parliament's academic project team.

This exhibition project is located in the Eastman building in Brussels in Léopold Park, in the heart of Brussels' European Quarter. The building was built in 1935 to house a dental clinic for disadvantaged children. Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Parliament between 2007 and 2009, was the one who proposed the idea of creating a House of European History.

At the inauguration of his office, Pöttering noted that "it will be a place where the memory of European history and the work for European unification are cultivated together and that it will be available for present and future citizens to continue to shape the identity of Europe.".

The adaptation works for this initiative began in November 2012, and APD became part of it in April 2013 to carry out the design of the museographic project (as reported at the time Digital AV), which combines the exhibition of original pieces with state-of-the-art audiovisual and interactive resources to recreate Europe's recent history and offer visitors a collection of objects and documents that reflect both the continent's diversity and its common roots..

All the contents exhibited are translated into the twenty-four official languages of the European Union. To do this, each visitor accesses the exhibition with a tablet that guides them through the museum, automatically translating all content and offering additional information through various audiovisual resources, imagery, graphics and texts.

The most iconic element of the museum is a sculpture of 25 meters high, made of aluminium and steel, located in the atrium of the building and that ascends next to the stairs to the skylight, thus touring the six floors of this facility. With the official name of Vortex of European History, this work is an allegory about "union in diversity", and integrates literary quotes that highlight the different languages and alphabets present in the EU, through a metal filigree that forms the graphic texture as a mesh that runs through the space.

Structure of the exhibition

The first floor of the House of European History hosts the space for temporary exhibitions, while the permanent one starts on the second floor, showing an overview of geographical changes and visions of Europe over time, as well as the cultural heritage, social and historical of the continent.

The following floors present chronologically the history of Europe from the revolutionary period to the two world wars; the tensions between democracy and totalitarianism and the political division during the Cold War, to the demonstrations and political protests for the democratization of the socialist and southern countries that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

As a culmination of the visit, the process of Europeanization is shown from a didactic and attractive point of view for visitors and on the top floor they are invited to participate and comment on various European topics, to learn about Brussels and to enjoy an audiovisual that highlights and celebrates the cultural diversity of the countries of the Union.

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