Exemplary NZEB moored canal zone

The canal is « the place to be Â» today in Brussels, but just a few years back when ELIA decided to build its headquarters here that was not yet the case. In this sense choosing this quartier was a first visionary step, preceding many others to come such as striving for optimum energy efficiency. Indeed, the 2009 competition brief called for « something green Â» … the client’s inbred desire for responsible innovation pushing the design team to propose going passive, then nzeb.

Cent-by-cent cost-control, draconian deadlines, and long-term maintenance imperiatives did not stifle these ambitions, leading to the exemplary project described here in Profafility Magazine.