The “Compass” building was initially needed to create sufficient space to install a new baggage handling and screening system imposed by European regulations (“Standard 3”). This has been installed on the lower levels (underground, and ground floor with intermediate level +1 next to the baggage handling already in place), and is fully operational from June 15, 2021. Levels +2 through +4 (+2 Arrival, +3 Departure, and +4 Mezzanine) have been realized structurally similar to the levels in the New Terminal from the early 1990s. These levels are now filled in with non-public airport-related functions to be fulfilled by the builder, but they are also designed to fit within a longer-term vision of the airport terminal (“Vision 2040”). Above this, 5 levels have been realized for offices and meeting facilities with direct views of the runways. The three upper levels will be commissioned as Head Office of Brussels Airport Company in September 2022, together with the lower levels +2 to +4.

The implantation of this project is located above ground fairly centrally in the Airport Terminal on the tarmac side, between the Skyhall built in 1958 (World Expo Brussels period) on the south side and the New Terminal (NT) built in the early 1990s on the north and west sides, and is about 100 m long and 50 m wide. On this site there was a low, slightly fan-shaped extension, the so-called Block 4 and a small remaining part of Block 5, which were built at the same time as the Skyhall at the time. The New Terminal was later built around them in an L-shaped ground plan. Across the roofs of this lower Block 4 and even lower 5 were several evacuation routes leading from the New Terminal to the Tarmac.

The architectural formal language on the two sides is very different:

• the 1958 Transit Hall (with the “Skyhall” on levels Arrivals and Departures) by architect Maxime Brunfaut was at the time an iconic building for the national airport. In the context of Expo ’58, this experimental building was a witness to its time and to the belief in a future in which the whole world became accessible. As such, the building testifies to the optimism and boldness characteristic of this period. It is literally conceived as “a window on the world” with a clear look to the future.
• the heavier, dominant, almost neo-classical form language of the New Terminal in a heavy concrete structure..

On the east side, the building is directly adjacent to the “tarmac,” the entirety of the paved ground level with circulation areas directly serving flight movements, and the aircraft runways.

Because the space required for the basement in which the new baggage screening takes place is much greater, it was decided to extend this basement to under the tarmac, and to end with so-called English coves, which form two rectangular openings in the exterior construction.

Brussels Airport Company already has the merit of having renovated and restored the Skyhall to its former glory, with an appropriate function as an events hall (www.skyhall.be).

The following considerations were applied as principles of architecture for the Compass building:

• This was not a place to develop its own strong architectural form language. A lot of different architecture is already present on the airport site. Besides the Skyhall, which deserves all attention (as an important architectural heritage), an architecturally “neutral” language of form was particularly appropriate, which therefore tries to stand out as little as possible, to eliminate itself as much as possible, and certainly not to compete with this Skyhall right next to it.
• For the connection with the Skyhall, a wide receding architectural joint was used, both in the façade plane and in the shape of the roof. Incidentally, it also seemed very useful to extend the compartment of the Skyhall with this joint to accommodate the necessary contemporary vertical means of circulation outside the actual interior of the Skyhall.
• Up to this joint, the main lines of the dominant architecture of the New Terminal have been continued while dominant features such as cornice elements and window modulation have been toned down (in a sort of “fade-out” as it were). At the same time, this has allowed the realization of a largely transparent façade wall in the center, allowing optimal eye contact with the tarmac and the runways, and this at both the Departures and Arrivals levels. A lot of incident natural light is also included in this ONO orientation.
• For the superstructure with offices, a sober, neutral design in a practically fully glazed volume was opted for. On the west side, two solid-looking symmetrical volumes provide continuity in a row of taller buildings with façade cladding in identical natural stone as used at the time for the Skyhall and the now renovated Gateway.

Total floor area: approx. 38 000 m2
Total building volume below and above ground: approx. 175 000 m3
Cornice height: 40.6 m

Photo’s by Stefan Couvreur