In a city where modern design, youth, and technology reign, a transparent workspace dedicated to fostering innovation will fit right in.
(Featured Image: The structure will host open workspaces, “flex” offices, shared meeting rooms, and a startup incubator / Image Credit © Foster + Partners)
Over the past decade, Belval has seen significant movement in tech and innovation. In some ways, it’s the center of Luxembourg’s tech hub. With the University of Luxembourg, Technoport, Luxinnovation, LIST, and Tadaweb, every corner of the city turns up a tech innovator.
Perfectly placed on the Franco-Luxembourgish border, Belval has reeled in a number of companies. As the city grows, so will its offices, and soon there will be a new player in town.
BESIX Real Estate Development (BESIX RED), the subsidiary of BESIX Group responsible for property development, recently received a construction permit to develop a co-working and open-space office building dedicated to the latest working trends.
The building, designed by British architects Foster + Partners, will go up near the University of Luxembourg and will host in total some 18,000 sqm of office space, of which 3,000 sqm will be reserved for co-working spaces. In addition, the structure will promote open workspaces, “flex” offices, shared meeting rooms but also larger areas that can accommodate larger companies or even a startup incubator. Another nearly 1,400 sqm will be available for restaurants, shops and similar facilities.
In Belval, that’s good news. The high number of cross-border workers and millennials’, who dominate the future workforce in the city, work expectations mean the building has both immediate and long-term demand. The goal for such a construct? To host a framework for interaction, creativity, performance, and innovation—an outlook just right for Belval.
“We have great ambitions for the Belval project, which is intended as a space for active life and encounter,” explains Geoffroy Bertrand, Country Director Luxembourg. “Alongside more traditional offices, areas have been designed for various models of co-working and for certain forms of ‘nomadism, areas no longer dedicated to specific activities or users.”
“The structure will host open workspaces, “flex” offices, shared meeting rooms, and a startup incubator”
Transparency
In line with the city’s modern architecture, BESIX RED’s building will be transparent. “The architectural challenge was to maintain the transparency of the building while increasing its flexibility and respecting the site’s industrial history,” said architect Darron Haylock, a partner of Foster + Partners, the architectural firm in charge of design.
The men and women of Belval’s workforce will be able to stroll under an elevated green atrium staggered between different stories, a testament to neighboring blast furnaces. Designed to align with the ubiquitous theme of “old and new” in Belval, this transparent giant will be a working home and decorative addition to Luxembourg’s second largest city.
In the long run
This isn’t BESIX RED’s first project in Luxembourg. The developer is responsible for several major real-estate projects, including for example the KONS office building (20,600 sqm) opposite the Train Station in Luxembourg City and now the ING’s Luxembourg HQ; the residential project SOHO (17,300 sqm), again in the station district; and the FERRERO building (29,500 sqm), housing the HQ of this international food group.
“BESIX RED is keen to become part of the Luxembourg economic fabric. With the Belval project, we are consolidating our position as a major player in the Luxembourg real estate market and are once again demonstrating our expertise,” says Geoffroy Bertrand.
