NATO has started the move to its new Head Quarters

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg . (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

NATO is moving into its new headquarters. In the following twelve weeks, close to 4,000 people will change offices.

 

“This is one of Europe’s largest and most complex construction projects. It’s extremely advanced in technology and security,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

“The building has taken ten years, just one year more than originally planned,” he points out.

– “It’s not too bad. And it kept the original budget estimates. So it’s actually a project that has kept the budget frame and is not much over its due date,” says Stoltenberg.

The move started Monday and will last for twelve weeks. Stoltenberg himself will move into the new headquarters about mid-way in the process.

To many at NATO have been waiting a long time for something like this. NATO has been set up in a temporary barracks since 1967.

Jo Palma is the architect who designed the building for the new headquarters.

The building consists of eight long and four short wings that are braided together in an indoor agora. The idea is that the building should look like folded hands, as a symbol of the unity of the alliance.

Even Stoltenberg’s office is on the third floor of the center wing, just above the place where visitors enter the agora.

 

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today