The Kirchberg District Centre (german: Stadtteilzentrum Kirchberg) is a mixed-use building complex in northeastern Kirchberg,

Luxembourg City Luxembourg ( lb, Lëtzebuerg; french: Luxembourg; german: Luxemburg), also known as Luxembourg City ( lb, Stad Lëtzebuerg, link=no or ; french: Ville de Luxembourg, link=no; german: Stadt Luxemburg, link=no or ), is the capital city of the Lu ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

containing both an office complex and shopping mall, with their principal tenants respectively being the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

's statistical office,

Eurostat Eurostat ('European Statistical Office'; DG ESTAT) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in the Kirchberg, Luxembourg, Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statis ...

, and an

Auchan Auchan () is a French multinational retail group headquartered in Croix, France. It was founded in 1961 by Gérard Mulliez and is owned by the Mulliez family, who has 95% stake in the company. With 354,851 employees, of which 261,000 have 5% s ...

hypermarket A hypermarket (sometimes called a hyperstore, supercentre or superstore) is a big-box store combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including ...

. Those parts of the building dedicated to office use are collectively referred to as the "Joseph Bech building", after European Union (EU)

pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and dev ...

and former Luxembourg prime minister,

Joseph Bech Joseph Bech (17 February 1887 – 8 March 1975)Thewes, Guy"Les gouvernements du Grand-Duché depuis 1848." Service information et presse. Luxembourg: Imprimerie Centrale, 2011. was a Luxembourgish politician and lawyer. He was the 15th Prime Mi ...

. The complex's shopping gallery is referred to as the "Kirchberg Shopping Centre".

History

Construction

Construction work on the Kirchberg District Centre began in October 1993, with those parts of the building related to the shopping mall completed in 1996, and the offices completed in September 1998. The total cost of the project was approximately 300 million euros. The project's chief architect was Martin Lammar of local architectural firm Atelier A+U, in partnership with Lars Iwdal of Swedish architectural firm arkitektbyrån ab, and Murray Church of

Hochtief Hochtief AG is a German construction company based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Between 1999 and 2001, the building's car parking facilities were extended. Between April 2008 and July 2009 a 5.13 million euro a new

food court A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dinner. I ...

was added to the shopping mall in work carried out by local construction firm CBL, utilising a design by architectural firm Moreno Architecture & Associates.

Ownership and tenants

Those parts of the building corresponding to the shopping mall were acquired by French retail group

. An Auchan hypermarket, occupying the two storeys in the northeast of the shopping gallery, was installed as an

anchor store In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. Wit ...

. The retailer estimated a catchment area of 25 kilometres. The store, and the wider shopping mall, opened to the public on 26 November 1996. Martin Draber, then director of Auchan Kirchberg, said the primary commercial rationale for its opening was to "recover part of the 8 billion

Luxembourg franc The Luxembourg franc (''F'' or ISO ''LUF'', lb, Frang), subdivided into 100 centimes, was the currency of Luxembourg between 1854 and 2002, except in 1941–44. In 1944–2002, its value was equal to that of the Belgian franc. The franc remaine ...

s" spent annually by Luxembourg consumers outside of its borders, rather than to directly compete with local businesses. The shopping mall currently contains 66 shops and 16 restaurants. The complex's office space, known as the Joseph Bech building, was, between 2004 and 2018, part of a closed-end real estate fund owned by Commerz Real before being sold to an anonymous buyer. Since the building opened in 1998, the principal tenant of the Joseph Bech building has been the

, which uses the building to house its statistics body,

. This arrangement was made due to the lack of office space provided for by the institution's then main Luxembourg complex, the Jean Monnet building. The European Commission plans to vacate the building and the end of its current lease in 2023, with it relocating staff to the

Jean Monnet 2 building The Jean Monnet 2 building (also known as JMO2) is a future office complex for the European Commission under construction on Boulevard Konrad Adenauer in the European district of the Luxembourg City quarter of Kirchberg, Luxembourg. The comple ...

, currently under construction in Kirchberg's European district.

Design

The complex's main structure is an elongated five-story building, stretching from Avenue John F Kennedy to Circuit de la Foire Internationale. The main structure has a gross area of approximately , and consists of two parallel galleries either side of a central atrium spanned by a

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

and

polytetrafluoroethylene Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a synthetic fluoropolymer of tetrafluoroethylene that has numerous applications. It is one of the best-known and widely applied PFAS. The commonly known brand name of PTFE-based composition is Teflon by Chemour ...

(PTFE) canopy roof. The first and second storeys comprise the shopping mall area, whilst those storeys above are dedicated to office space. Bridges, which span the central atrium, above the shopping levels, connect the two parallel office spaces. Attached to the main structure, along its northern edge, facing rue Carlo Hemmer, are four identical parallel five storey wings used as office space. Between the two wings closest to Circuit de la Foire Internationale lies a later extension to the shopping mall's second storey, in the form of a single-storey food court, adding of floor space. A cuboid five storey office structure attached to the wing closest to John F Kennedy faces out onto the road. The Kirchberg District Centre is

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

framed, with approximately 12,000 tonnes of steel used in the initial construction. Much of the building infrastructure and the

parking garage A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...

, with 3,500 parking spaces, are located in the three basement levels of the building. Due to the increased terrain height of Circuit de la Foire Internationale, the building is stepped, with the pedestrian entrance to the shopping mall from Avenue John F Kennedy being raised from street level, and the shopping mall only occupying the second storey towards Circuit de la Foire Internationale.

Location

The Kirchberg District Centre is situated in the Kiem district of the Luxembourg City quarter of Kirchberg. To the north is the country's largest cinema multiplex,

Kinepolis Kirchberg Kinepolis Kirchberg is a multiplex cinema in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg, owned and operated by the Kinepolis Group, following their acquisition of the Utopia Group SA in late 2015. Prior to this, the multiplex was known as "Utopolis ...

and Luxembourg's national

exhibition centre A convention center (American English; or conference centre in British English) is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typica ...

, "Luxexpo The Box". Located between the complex and Circuit de la Foire Internationale is the Kubik building, a cube shaped structure, currently occupied by the

European Stability Mechanism The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is an intergovernmental organization located in Luxembourg City, which operates under public international law for all eurozone member states having ratified a special ESM intergovernmental treaty. It was ...

. The complex's official address, and principal street entrance for its office space is given as 5 rue Alphose Weicker, with the street forming the southern border of the building. However, the public entrances to the shopping mall are located to the east on Avenue John F. Kennedy, to the west on Circuit de la Foire Internationale, and to the north via the food court on rue Carlo Hemmer.

Transport

Since December 2017, trams services have been available from the "Alphonse Weicker"

tram stop A tram stop, tram station, streetcar stop, or light rail station is a place designated for a tram, streetcar, or light rail vehicle to stop so passengers can board or alight it. Generally, tram stops share most characteristics of bus stops, bu ...

located in front of the building's Avenue John F. Kennedy entrance.

Notes

References

External links

* for the Kirchberg Shopping Centre {{Eu-directorates-general European Commission Buildings and structures of the European Union Buildings and structures in Luxembourg City Shopping malls established in 1996