OMA together with Jaspers-Eyers Architects have won the competition to create new headquarters of Belgium’s National Railway Company in Brussels.
With its 7 000 square metres, the winning project offers workspaces for 4 000 employees of the Belgium train operator SNCB. The design renovates and extends three vacant railway buildings in the Brussels-South train station along Fonsny Avenue. The new addition is an eleven story, 236-meter long volume facing the rail tracks. The existing buildings, built for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair, and the new structure are an expression of Brussels’ double character.
“Contemporary Brussels is both historic and modern, national and European, regional and cosmopolitan. That is its essence – in the mediation between presumed opposites. It is this reality that our project intends to express,” explained OMA
The project includes conference and training rooms, a fitness center, a restaurant, and rooftop gardens on the existing buildings. The three-story entrance lobby will be positioned at the street level, with retail spaces and visible access points to the rail tracks. The extension will be in contrast to the existing structures with a sheer, cliff-like facade, punctured by circular windows.
https://www.archdaily.com/934369/oma-designs-new-headquarters-for-belgiums-national-railway-company#