B.P.-building

B.P.-building rises in Antwerp as a twelve-storey office tower, completed in 1963. Belgian architect Léon Stynen designed it with contributions from Paul De Meyer and J. Reusens. Green space surrounds the freestanding structure, whose metal-grid curtain wall gives its Modernist and Brutalist character.

Steel cables suspend the floors and façade from roof beams above a central concrete core. This was Europe’s first building to use such a suspended construction. Two steel beams, each 55 metres long, connect to nine 18-metre crossbeams, while 57-metre concrete columns carry the core, stairway and ducts. Without internal columns, the ten similar office floors retain open, flexible interiors divided by wood-based walls.

A restaurant occupies the upper level, adding activity above the open floor plans. The building received the SBUAM Prize in 1964 and became an architectural monument in 2001. Its striking detail is the hidden load path: steel handles tension, concrete carries compression, and cables hold the occupied floors aloft.