Text taken from the BMA - January 2021
"Occupying the entire length of Boulevard de Berlaimont, the building housing the headquarters of the National Bank (BNB) does not go unnoticed! A model of modernism, it occupies a pivotal place between the upper town and the lower town, on a plot with a difference in level of more than 8.4 meters between the main entrance and Rue du Bois Sauvage at the back. An imposing architecture and heritage in a complex built environment, this is a great architectural challenge that presents itself here! Indeed, the BNB wishes to completely renovate its headquarters in order to accommodate all of its staff by 2028, currently spread across several buildings. Aspiring to become the 'National Bank of tomorrow', the BNB wants to evolve in terms of new ways of working, where cooperation and intellectual productivity would be at the center. To do this, the National Bank aspires to a high-performance building, equipped with 1,500 workstations, a conference rooms, extensive meeting and training facilities, a semi-public social base, a public counter function and several support facilities. In collaboration with the regional and municipal administrations, a preliminary research into the architectural history of the building, an assessment of the heritage value and a volumetric study were carried out. From this, guidelines for urban planning, architecture and heritage were determined. Among the many ambitions of this project are sustainability, the openness of the building, respect for its history, which combines monumentality and a certain dignity, particularly in the technical details and the choice of sophisticated materials."