Architecture in Luxembourg

Do you appreciate architecture? Take a good look at the structures and façades of the numerous buildings that are conserved and protected as part of Luxembourg’s architectural heritage. They will take you on a trip through different eras and trends, exploring other times and civilisations. The country’s buildings are a daring blend of contrasting styles, combining relics of the past with the creations of renowned contemporary architects from Luxembourg and abroad.

You could entertain yourself for hours just wandering the streets of the country’s largest cities (Esch-sur-Alzette and Luxembourg City) and admiring the architecture. There are numerous churches, abbeys, bridges, villas and the like, but the houses themselves tell their own stories too, with their Art Nouveau, historicist or neo-Gothic façades telling you a lot about the era when they were built and what was going on at the time.

The old town at the heart of Luxembourg City is a remarkable mixture of modern buildings and fortifications from a bygone age. For example, the restored keep of Fort Thüngen – the impressive historical building that houses the Museum Dräi Eechelen – is a perfect match with the stunning and very modern Mudam museum of contemporary art, a creation of famous architect Ieoh Ming Pei. These two buildings mark the entrance to the Kirchberg area, which has its own impressive collection of contemporary architecture.

With developments in city-planning and engineering, Luxembourg’s architecture is constantly evolving and this has elevated Luxembourg to the level of cutting-edge laboratory for new sustainable construction concepts. The Order of Architects and Consulting Engineers (OAI) and the Luxembourg Centre for Architecture (LUCA) use an assortment of different initiatives to promote their members’ work in- and outside Luxembourg.

The Luxembourg landscape has gained a number of exemplary designs in recent years. In each region, it’s possible to discover some remarkable projects daring to assert themselves through contemporary vocabulary, thus establishing new landmarks on our built landscape. For extremely different contexts and programs, they have a strong identity, all the while accommodating various functional and aesthetic approaches.

While all architectural projects take into account their location, this aspect is sometimes more accentuated. They also meet one of the challenges of our contemporary architecture, in entering into dialogue with the existing constructed heritage, being historical, industrial or rural.

With the 14 itineraries of Architectour.lu, discover, or indeed rediscover, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg as a cutting-edge laboratory for new concepts in the field of sustainable construction!