Europe on map!

As Europe keeps changing/shifting its borders/limits, it makes it more interesting issue to examine. I have produced a large amount of research within the curatorial work for the exhibition Archilab for the year 2008. This detailed research also made me produce a lot of maps that you may see below in a lower resolution. I believe to see Europe among all the different classifications, and focuses creates a new geography. This makes it as interesting as the ongoing question of extension fr a greater Europe/turkey in Europe?/Europe until mount Ararat/etc.

however people forget about the history, and the movements within the history while shaping Europe all the time. this given name had all the time in a shift and cannot really defined with a given policy of today. union is a matter of collaboration as long as, the products in return makes the defined territory part of the global network.

so lets have a look at the Europe from 2008.

INTERREG 3B TERRITORIES MAP

The regional policy of the European Union targets the cohesion of the whole area, motivated by the disparities between the 27 member countries and their 268 regions. It has three main objectives – convergence, regional competitiveness and employment – within the European Territorial Co-operation Objective. This focuses on cross-border co-operation through joint local and regional initiatives and interregional collaborations. The structural funds and instruments, which support the main objectives of this regional policy, are the European Fund for Regional Development (ERDF), the European Structural Funds (ESF) and the Cohesion Fund. The European Territorial Co-operation Objective is based on the community initiative INTERREG (Inter Regional). It focuses on various priorities, from transport, tourism and culture, spatial planning and urban issues to employment, the information society, and peace. Under this wide-ranging regional policy, INTERREG (in the name of regional development and cohesion) promotes various types of collaboration projects between the European regions and EU member regions and border states. These aim to bring economic, social and environmental developments and improvements to the entire EU. The INTERREG programme is part of the European Spatial Development programme and was the key tool for the application of the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP), adopted in 1999.

URBAN INITIATIVE

The URBAN community initiative was developed, within the regional
policy remit for urban issues, as an instrument operating within
the cohesion policy. It is dedicated to the regeneration of urban areas
and crisis areas. The URBAN initiative demands a high degree of involvement
on the local level.

MEGAS

After the EU enlargement in 2007, about 70 major cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants dominate the European urban system. About 20 percent of the EU population in 27 member states live in these cities. This shows that European cities have diverse potentials, and the “mega” cities (or “metropolitan growth areas”) represent potentials and capabilities across the EU within the current geographical context. Among them, the cities of Paris and London are considered the global nodes of the European Union. They are the EU’s main global protagonists, due to their economic, social, and cultural capacities.

DEMOGRAPHIC DECLINE AND MEGAS

The overlap between metropolitan growth regions and population decline clearly demonstrates the shift in migration, skills, knowledge and economic strength towards the European engines, the strong metropolitan growth regions and towards the locations of the European Union considered to have the most potential. As a result, one may note
a centralised Europe in terms of population and production and the contrasting peripheral conditions within the whole.

TEN AND MEGAS

The Trans-European Networks for Transportation (TEN) obviously concentrate on the European Union’s main cities and regions. The map also underlines the importance of several injection points in order to create more nodes and better connectivity. This improvement of the infrastructure will provide the basis for stronger cohesion in the future. By implementing the transportation priorities in the EU territory, the potentials of the megas will also be increased.

PORTS AND MEGAS

The main commercial ports in the European Union are economically important gateways. However, the current overlap in the regions and cities, with due regard to their potential as metropolitan growth areas, is important. In general, it may be noted that the many potential and strong “mega” cities are in zones that include harbour areas, especially in the west, northwest and southwest regions of the EU. By contrast, there is a lack of commercial ports and economic power around the acceding EU nation states in southeast Europe.

Source: All the maps and the definitions are made by the author Demet Mutman and previews are taken directly from the final catalogue of The Archilab Europe Strategic Architecture 2008.