Administrative building in Belval

The mighty blast furnaces in Belval-Ouest with their bizarre beauty, countless stairs, ramps, openings and vistas, shape the atmosphere and character of the place. The new buildings on the southern and eastern edges of the plateau, the Rockhal and the National Archives, are large, predominantly closed buildings of exposed concrete. The villa-like former director’s house of ARBED asserts itself directly in front of the Rockhal. In this heterogeneous context, characterised by historical witnesses and diverse scales, the new Bâtiment administratif manifests itself as a strong, sculpturally shaped building. Its polygonal form seems to be inspired more by industrial buildings than by the classic office building typology. With its prismatically broken skin, it reflects the surroundings in fragments and overplays its own scale. An independent object visible from afar, it forms a signal for the atmosphere of departure of the former industrial wasteland. The low part of the building with its public functions reacts to the immediate context, mediates between the different scales of the surroundings and forms a clear entrance situation. The high part with its offices frees itself from the orthogonal geometry of the low part. It enters into a dialogue with the blast furnaces, and bends back as a gesture of respect for the former director’s building, and seems to have been polished by the industrial tracks in the south-east.