In his essay ‘Bigness’¹, Rem Koolhaas argues that, once they reach a certain size, buildings seem to escape the rules of architecture. In other words: what is the maximum that architecture can cope with? Can a building such as the new NATO headquarters in Evere still be assessed according to established standards and values? 1 , published in *S, M, L, XL* in 1995

The new headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Evere, which is due to open shortly, is, with its 250,000 m² of floor space, not only the largest (office) building in Belgium – with its own postcode! – but expectations are also extremely high.