EU enlargement necessitated larger headquarters for the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg. In line with a design by the Ingenhoven architectural office, 750 new jobs were created in the immediate vicinity of existing buildings of the institution on the Kirchberg Plateau. The most eye-catching element of the investment bank is a 14,50sqm barrel vault that serves as an oversized main façade, rising above the zigzagging, meandering complex of buildings. Around 1,500t of vault load are transferred to the building in the longitudinal, vertical and diagonal directions via 320 hinged columns. In addition to the glazing of the enormous steel grid, the highlights of the structure include three cable façades that enclose the south-facing atria. 14 different façade types were used at the European Investment Bank, ten of them being from seele.

The steel grid of the barrel vault is subdivided into a static three-level hierarchy and rises up to 40m above the north-facing winter gardens. seele’s efforts began with the secondary structure, a steel tube in the form of triangles, which receives additional reinforcement from fins at the top and bottom. Mounted on the steel grid is an aluminium grid structure which further subdivides the triangular steel pattern for the roof glazing. A total of 18km of aluminium profiles, 3,344 cast aluminium nodes and 5,772 triangular glass panels of approximately 1.75m to 2m form the roof’s skin. The glass panes are fixed onto the aluminium structure with two point fittings on each edge, and the joints are sealed. The three atria on the south side of the building are spanned by steel girders (fish-bellied beams) up to 50m in length.