General Secretariat of the European Parliament (Luxembourg)

The German architectural studio Heinle, Wischer und Partner is responsible for this project, the Konrad Adenauer building of the General Secretariat of the European Parliament. Nowadays, it is the most ambitious sustainable public works in the European Union: a complex of zero-energy offices expected to house more than 3,000 employees.

In this type of sustainable building the façade plays a significant role in saving energy. For this project the architects have chosen a glazed façade, and in the interior they used wooden curtain walling made with VIGAM, the only oak glulam beam in the world with the CE marking for structural use.

This emblematic project perfectly summarises why wood is so successful as the building material of the future: sustainability, beauty, technology and certifications. With regard to the latter, in addition to the CE marking for structural use, Grupo Gámiz was the first manufacturer to obtain permission for structural use of VIGAM (oak glulam beams) by the “Deutsches Institut für Bautechnik (DIBt).