A Mediation Between Presumed Opposites: SNCB Headquarters by OMA

Three monumental buildings along the Fonsny Avenue have stood vacant for the past two decades. The Tri Postal sorting house and the two office buildings by which it is flanked were once part of the Brussels-South station, at a time when the postal service was more intimately connected with the rail network. The buildings were designed by different architects, and realized as an ensemble on the occasion of the 1958 World’s Fair.

Courtesy of Luxigon

Courtesy of OMA

Their outward coherence – an expanse of brick – belies the functional autonomy of each building. Their internal logic is agreeably askew, with mismatched floor heights and conflicting grid patterns. These cross-characterful elements, are used to full effect in the proposed addition – which seeks to integrate the distinct buildings with a new volume to provide a HQ for the SNCB (National Railway Company of Belgium).

Courtesy of OMA

Courtesy of OMA

In the proposed recombination, the old and the new buildings add up to 75,000 m2. The total is divided into three formal zones – from the public Front-Office through to the Back-Office, the preserve of the SNCB employees. The public Front-Office is communicated from the street through to the tracks, via a three-story entrance lobby. Retail spaces and visible access points improve the street’s appeal to the passer-by, in line with the municipality’s strategy to inject new life into the neighborhood.

Courtesy of OMA

The Mid-Office, situated in the former Tri Postal building, includes conference and training rooms, a 200-seat auditorium, a fitness center and a restaurant. The Back-Office areas occupy the two former office buildings and the new volume. Rooftop gardens are quilted across each of the three original buildings.

Courtesy of OMA

At 236 by 19 meters in plan, the new volume maintains the horizontal thrust of the original in its bearing to the tracks. At once geological in scale, the building is impressionistic in its effects – the sheer, cliff-like façade is rendered particulate by the articulation of un-fritted portholes. In its openness to the tracks, the building offers a playful disclosure of its inner workings – a move to convey the transparency of the organization to the public it serves.

Courtesy of OMA

There is no back to the building in conventional terms. In its address, it is full frontal. Two faces, two aspects. A serviceable analogy for the Janus-headed character of modern Brussels. The project aims to effect a sublime contrast between the old, and the not yet old. It proposes an expansion of the original ensemble – making of the three, a little more than the sum of each.