The European design team integrated by architectural firms JDS Architects, Coldefy, Carlo Ratti Associati, NL Architects, and Ensamble Studio has been announced as the winner of the international design competition for the renewal of the Paul-Henri SPAAK Building, the European Parliament plenary building in Brussels, Belgium.
The open call was announced in 2019, and after reviewing 132 submitted applications one year after, the jury selected 15 candidates to take part in the final competition, including consolidated firms such as OMA, Snøhetta, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Shigeru Ban Architects, and Dominique Perrault Architecte.
Alongside the winning team led by JDS Architects, the organization granted the second prize to the group led by Jabornegg & Palffy (Austria) and Kuehn Malvezzi (Germany). Moreover, the third, fourth, and fifth prizes were to France-based Moreau Kusunoki and Belgium firm Dethier Architectures (Belgium); Belvedere Architecture (France), and the team led by A2M (Belgium) and C.F. Møller Architects (Denmark), respectively.
The Paul-Henri SPAAK Building is part of an estate of around ten buildings with a total area of some 665,000 square meters. The 84,000-sqm building houses the Chamber of the European Parliament and a series of facilities for holding parliamentary committee meetings, organizing press conferences, and welcoming visitors.
Regarding the new project, the organization explained that "the notion of “renewal” covers all approaches between a “renovation” of the building and a “reconstruction” of the building. It is one of the main components of the competition task to identify the right approach." Since the organization has not unveiled images of the winning project, it is not clear yet which decision the winning team actually chose for its proposal.
According to the European Parliament, the 15 finalist projects will be displayed in an exhibition held in Brussels, which is scheduled for September 2022.
Via European Parliament.
