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OMA / Reinier de Graaf, together with Jaspers-Eyers Architects, has won the competition for the design of the new headquarters of the National Railway Company of Belgium in Brussels. With a total area of 75,000 square meters, the project brings together all SNCB’ departments under the same roof, creating work space for 4,000 employees.

OMA’s design preserves the ensemble of three monumental buildings of the Brussels-South train station along the Fonsny Avenue adding a 11-story, 236-meter long new volume facing the rail tracks. The interaction between the existing buildings, inaugurated on the occasion of the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair, and the addition is an expression of Brussels’ double nature.

“It embraces the Belgian Brussels, with its early, and often courageous expressions of modern architecture, and the European Brussels, for which the European railway and the Brussels-South stand as symbols,” says Reinier de Graaf.

The SNCB office space is complemented by conference and training rooms, a fitness center, a restaurant, and rooftop gardens on the existing buildings.

At street level, a three-story entrance lobby, retail spaces and visible access points to the rail tracks improve the street’s appeal to the passer-by, in line with the municipality’s strategy to inject new life into the neighborhood. On the side of the rail tracks, the façade reveals the diversity of activities within the new building – a move to convey the openness and transparency of the organization to the public it serves.

OMA’s design is part of the preferred bid submitted by the consortium BESIX Group, BPC/BPI and Immobel. The competition was organized by SNCB.

The new headquarters of SNCB NMBS is OMA’s first large scale project in Belgium. The project was led by partner Reinier de Graaf together with associate and project architect Mark Veldman.