While its future appears tenuous, the EU is about to get a shining new headquarters

2017-01-03T12:49:00-05:00

When European leaders meet for the first time in their new headquarters, known as the Europa and built for about 325 million euros, or $340 million, they will experience “joyful” surroundings, Philippe Samyn, the project’s architect, said during a recent tour of the building. It has been a long time since any gathering of the bloc’s leaders could be described as joyful.

The building is described as a "giant glowing orb" or a "vase". It also includes a restored hallways from the building the previously occupied the site, the former headquarters for the Nazis when they occupied Brussels during the war.

The orb is encased in a glass cube. The structure symbolically gestures at its program, with the 3,750 panes of glass that compose the façade set in refurbished oak frames sourced from demolition sites from each of the EU's member nations. But many members of the EU, in particular those that had austerity measures forced upon them, are less than enthused about the building and its price tag.

Archinect - News

While its future appears tenuous, the EU is about to get a shining new headquarters