Restoring the Lustre to the European Tower Block of Thionville (Lanfranco Virgili, 1961-1963)

Résumé En

The residential building, the European, was built between 1961 and 1963 by the architect and urban planner Lanfranco Virgili (1924-2018) and located in Thionville in Lorraine, which at the time was in full industrial expansion after the Second World War. Half a century later, in view of the ageing façade and progression of living standards, the co-owners enquired as to how to renovate the building and notably, the façade. They were faced with multiple challenges, particularly in terms of energy issues and costs, which they intended to correlate with the heritage value of the building in order to carry out a like-for-like renovation. The European has proved to be a symbol of the industrial era of the Fensch valley and in particular Thionville, this “Iron Metropolis”: its façade is faced with wide corrugated stainless steel panels that give it a unique, shiny aesthetic. Installed on the banks of the Moselle, the actual name of the building also reflected the new Europe under construction, of which the Thionville-Koblenz canalization was an important factor of development. It is also a valuable witness to the architect’s activity in the town, since Lanfranco Virgili (1924-2018) was an internationally recognised town planner and oversaw the development and extension plan for Thionville from 1956 onwards.