New Post Luxembourg HQ Inaugurated

The official inauguration of the HELIX building, the new headquarters of POST Luxembourg, took place on Monday 12 June 2023 in Luxembourg-gare.

The event took place in the presence of His Royal Highness the Grand Duke, the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Fernand Etgen, the Luxembourg Minister of the Economy, Franz Fayot, the Mayor of the City of Luxembourg, Lydie Polfer, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of POST Luxembourg, Serge Allegrezza and the Managing Director of POST Luxembourg, Claude Strasser.

“A real jewel,” as described by Claude Strassen, the building is meant to embody present values while keeping both the past and the future in mind. It is the central headquarters of the POST built on the same site as the 1958 POST building, which had to be demolished when the infrastructure no longer met the enterprise’s needs.

The guests were able to discover the building during the inauguration and to learn various facts about its sustainable design. Built to be eco-friendly and to promote the workers’ well-being, the HELIX building uses no fossil energy and it was built using the concrete structure already present on-site, namely 8,600m3 volume of concrete, thereby sparing the emission of 2,400 tonnes of CO2.

The building has the particularity of storing, converting and reusing heat. This system is based on the use of solar panels but also that of an ice reservoir combined with heat pumps. Energy is created when water freezes to form ice. The same amount is required to heat water from zero to 80℃. The Olympic swimming pool-sized ice reservoir is located in the building’s basement and it is the biggest of its kind in the Grand Duchy. In the winter, the heat pump withdraws energy to ensure that the water tank freezes from the inside out. In hot months, the resulting ice mass is used to supply cold water to lower room temperatures. The ice thaws slowly and reaches a higher energy level during melting, which allows for heat to be stored again for the winter.

Every step of the building process took advantage of local resources: the architecture firms consulted were all Luxembourg-based, the workers were local, Claude Strasser pointed out. The materials used were local or European (only the stone used came from Italy).

The HELIX building is an example of biophilic design, intended to foster encounters and exchanges through its interconnected spaces with vertical circulation. Many surfaces on the walls and on every floor are covered in greenery, while several of the office spaces are also decorated with lush plants. There is a garden space on the ground floor as well, which has bee hives so the POST headquarters can produce their own honey (which is then wrapped in a little gift bag made from employees’ recycled POST sweaters), but also strawberry plants and raspberry plants.

The building’s name – HELIX – is due to its central, white and monumental spiral staircase that looks like the DNA shape (a double helix). Its symbolism, according to Jean Pierre Gauthier, project manager and property development officer at POST, is that is puts the people at the centre, because POST is made up of its individual workers coming together. The most gratifying part of seeing the new building functioning according to plan, Jemp Gauthier said, was to see it come alive, seeing the employees enjoy the space, seeing them interact in the staircase and hearing first-hand that they are experiencing high levels of well-being at work.

The main goal of this building seemed to be to ensure that workers can get the most enjoyment from the spaces: with a canteen on the building’s rooftop overlooking Luxembourg-ville from the central train station to the Findel airport’s airstrips, with natural light in every office space and with green surroundings.