ArcelorMittal and the “Fonds d’Urbanisation et d’Aménagement du Plateau de Kirchberg,” (Fonds Kirchberg) have today named the architectural practice Wilmotte & Associés (W&A) as the winner of the architectural consultation to design ArcelorMittal’s new global headquarters building in Luxembourg.
W&A was selected as the winner of this design competition by a nine-person jury chaired by Aditya Mittal, CFO of ArcelorMittal and CEO of ArcelorMittal Europe, following a highly competitive process with designs proposed by many of the world’s leading architects. Other landmark buildings designed by W&A include the Ferrari sporting management centre in Maranello, Google’s UK headquarters in London, the LVMH corporate headquarters in Paris and the five-star Mandarin Oriental Hotel also in Paris.
The winning design is primarily steel and glass, and will showcase the diverse benefits of steel in addition to highlighting the use of steel in ‘green’, sustainable construction. As well as being ArcelorMittal’s headquarters, housing around 800 employees, some of the space will be leased for other uses. There will also be a restaurant, sports facility and a 200-seat auditorium available to the public.
W&A’s design responded to a detailed brief to design a modern, sustainable building that harnesses all the potential of steel from top to bottom. Technical innovations include a fluid and flexible ground floor space featuring no columns, an integrated flooring system fully designed in steel which removes the need for false ceilings, a curtain wall completely made from steel which results in a lighter, more airy building due to steel’s higher strength and superior elasticity and new section bars adapted from products designed for the automotive sector.
The W&A design also responded to ArcelorMittal’s desire to have a sustainable building that promotes steel’s contribution to the circular economy. The building follows the “cradle-to-cradle” concept, meaning that it can be dismantled and nearly all the steel products re-used in a new building without the need for recycling. It is also a low-carbon, energy-efficient building and will be “BREEAM outstanding,” “DGNB Gold,” and “BBCA” certified.
Consultation was initiated in February 2017 following ArcelorMittal’s decision in April 2016 to build a new head office in Luxembourg. In the first phase, eight internationally renowned practices were invited to submit initial designs. In the second phase, three shortlisted practices – Foster + Partners, Rem Koolhaas OMA and Wilmotte & Associés - were asked to develop a more advanced architectural design. These were then submitted to the jury which evaluated the proposals and then recommended W&A to ArcelorMittal and to the Board of Fonds Kirchberg as the selected winner.
Construction is expected during the summer of 2019 with completion in the last quarter of 2021.
