NATO Headquarters – Brussels

The new NATO Headquarters provides 2.2 million square feet of office and conference facilities for its member nations. The design consists of eight long office wings which taper in height, connected by a feature open central spine – the Agora.

The Agora is a dramatic seven-story tall open space, containing exposed 100’ spanning trusses at its ceiling, glass-enclosed elevator towers with connecting walkways, and feature up to 100’ x 100’ cable net walls at each end of the space with cantilevered sunshade elements.

The structure had two primary drivers – the long wings required an efficient, repetitive system that could also be easily adapted to their changing geometry, while the exposed Agora structure needed elegant, expressive solutions to assist in establishing the architecture – all while satisfying considerable blast requirements.