TOWARDS A CIRCULAR FUTURE

Although the term circular design has more recent origins, since its creation more than 20 years ago architectesassoc+ has been investigating and engaging in this direction. Indeed, at their time of conception back when low-energy construction was the primary focus, Aeropolis II (2006) and the ELIA headquarters (2010) were respectively the largest passive and NZEB office buildings in the Benelux. But they were also first-of-a-kind reversible,

belgium new architecture

GREENBIZZ is honoured to be once again present in this year’s BELGIUM NEW ARCHITECTURE, the sixth in a series edited by Prisme Editions examining significant achievements in architecture on belgian soil in recent years. As an introduction, writer Pierre Loze meets Christian Kieckens for an informal conversation about current architecture and its future. Steven Beckers presents his research « The Paradigm Shift Towards Urban Food

WBA carte blanche: architecture of necessity

architectesassoc was invited last spring by the curators of the exhibition ARCHITECTURE OF NECESSITY, an international triennial event encouraging «discussions about the fundamental values of architecture», to submit a proposal for 2016. GREENBIZZ, a deeply engaged project completed this year by architectesassoc was presented. Held in Sweden at the Virserums Konsthall, ARCHITECTURE OF NECESSITY has become since its

Greenbizz in inventories #2

« First launched in 2010, the Architectures Wallonie-Bruxelles Inventaires # Inventories collection sets out, every three years, to take stock of recent architectural works in Wallonia and Brussels and illustrate the efforts made by the public authorities and private clients to find an architecture that captures the zeitgeist and helps improve the living environment. (…) The inventory draws on a wide range of

Brussels builds greener

This series of videos BRUSSELS BUILDS GREENER : The Value of Expertise is an initiative of Brussels Invest & Export with the support of Cécile Jodogne, State Secretary in charge of Foreign Trade, and in collaboration with ecobuild.bussels. Its purpose is to bring to the forefront the Region’s specialists in all fields of sustainable design and construction including engineers, contractors, urban planners, and architects including

the missing link between tivoli and tour & taxi

Excerpt Pro-RealEstate : « Greenbizz is part of a large-scale redevelopment project called Tivoli in the city centre… This new publicly funded sustainable neighbourhood will include both housing and economic facilities, and responds to the desire of the public authorities to bring new life to urban areas through mixed function developments. The part of the site to be

be bright: go green

«  In a development likely to sharpen debate about indoor environment conditions in office buildings, a study published Monday reports that workers showed significantly lowered cognitive functioning after spending a day in a simulated office environment featuring high concentrations of carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds. By contrast, in conditions set to simulate a

Prefabrication: surveying dimensional tolerances

Is prefabrication a solution for more sustainable buildings? The number of recent projects giving it a try, for example those developing made-to-measure facade techniques, constitutes an interesting data-base revealing key issues such as dimensional tolerance. This ECOBUILD-BRUSSELS article describes 3 such projects (Aeropolis, Ixelles Brewery, and Greenbizz). When striving for air-tightness, pre-fabrication

architectesassoc+ on Debate, Dialogue, and getting things Done

This summer’s Libre Essentielle edition presents architectesassoc’s recent work, ongoing reflexions, and future projects. Excerpt : « Si l’on veut s’investir à Bruxelles, cela signifie qu'il faut accepter son contexte tel qu'il est. Notre volonté est de faire comprendre qu'amener de la qualité, provoquer un ressenti positif, développer une vraie réflexion architecturale peut susciter un

architectesassoc+ IN THE NEWS

Greenbizz (finished end 2015) and Elia (finished end 2013) have at least one thing in common:  close-knit teams led by invested clients. On Greenbizz, citydev is represented by Stéphane Stevelinck (Project Developer), and Michel Nederlandt (Manager Methods and Support) served for Elia. Both are key actors making a difference from design stage on through site work, pragmatically getting the job done. It’s day-to-day work, but not short-term:

empereur inauguration

Architectura was present at May’s Conference Press preceding Empereur’s inauguration : « Ce 27 mai 2015, Marc Lacour, du bureau architectesassoc, accueillait la presse au Boulevard de l'Empereur à Bruxelles, pour présenter un bâtiment au programme mixte (bureaux - logements) … Développé par le Groupe Denys, le projet se distingue par le

belgium: a hotbed of passivhaus

Excerpt from Treehugger : « Belgium appears to be a hotbed of Passivhaus; there are hundreds of them, totalling over 5.4 million square feet, and as of this year every new building in Brussels has to be built to passivhaus standards… It really demonstrates that when a city and a country get serious about sustainability, things can happen fast and make a real

brussels goes passive, what's in it for architecture

In this book, the Brussels-based university ULB, the Brussels Environment Agency, and the Passive House Platform have asked several experts (architects, engineers, contractors, sponsors, lawyers, …)  including architectesassoc. to share insights on how and where practice MUST change, and how and why think-modes have been modified by the passive uprising. The debate is open, but hooting that 0,6 air-tightness will strangulate the real estate market

city docks soon on site?

City Authorities (through its Commision de Concertation) have delivered a positive vote concerning City Docks in Anderlecht, imposing a limited number of conditions. City Docks, facing the canal and bordering the Boulevard Industriel, is a new neighbourhood imagined by Atenor : architectesassoc. has been commisionned to design 118 homes organized atop a suspended plaza overlooking the canal and its verdant landscape, part of a large-scale

brussels' head architect presents work accomplished

Olivier Bastin’s five-year mandate comes to an end : this exhibition and book presents key projects  his team participated in including Greenbizz, notably promoted by Bastin. The book presents crucial projects soon-to-come in Brussels, most public but some private, and offers at least a glimpse of the work-process (thought-process ?) implemented by his team.

be.passive magazine: elia headquarters

Michel Nederlandt, who represented Elia here from almost beginning to end, explains with Mattias D’Hooghe and Sabine Leribaux how the project got started, how and why it evolved as design, matured, and how occupants today interact with the built result. Flexibility, crucial both today and tomorrow, is also addressed, with precise aspects such as the building’s modular skeleton and plug-in/plug-out pre-fabricated timber façades depicted.

Exemplary NZEB moored canal zone

The canal is « the place to be » 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 » … the client’s inbred desire for

a+ magazine: elia headquarters

However nzeb the proposal, however passive the prefabricated skin, however polluted the soil … the Elia  project is first and foremost about expressing identity. This article by Cecile Vandernoot  explains the genesis of the project., and exactly what Marc Lacour means by « liquid architecure ».

brussels walks the green talk

Excerpt from Flanders Today : « No, Brussels will not be the European Green Capital of 2015. It lost out the European Commission’s competition for the most eco-friendly city to Bristol in the UK last year. But in making it to the final stage with just four other remaining candidate cities, Brussels convincingly demonstrated its green chops.  And with ambitious plans for a start-up

brussels greenbizz - genesis presented at the 2012 phsymposium

Embracing a myriad of intertwining criteria, the inherent complexity of not only Greenbizz but of the general issue of sustainable thinking has been welcomed and integrated during its genesis. This paper from the 2012 PHsymposium explains that the design process here has obviously taken its cue from Aeropolis and Elia ... but with one fundamental shift prompted from day one by citydev’s competition brief : Greenbizz's key challenge is not just about

UK centre for the built environment (cbe) reports on brussels

« This report was commissioned by the Centre for the Built Environment (CBE), part of the Adapt Low Carbon Group at the University of East Anglia. CBE is a centre that draws upon a cluster of expertise on low energy and sustainable construction both within and outside UEA and is responsible for delivery of the Exemplar Low Carbon Building project funded by the EU Regional Development Fund, UEA and UK

aeropolis II: make it simple

Excerpt Architectura :« L'immeuble de bureaux novateur brille par sa simplicité. Le concept unique augmente la facilité d'utilisation et offre une sensation de confort plus élevée que dans un immeuble classique. Etant donné qu'il n'a pas été nécessaire de recourir à des techniques classiques complexes et coûteuses, des

elia headquarters presented at 2012 phsymposium

Contrary to what could have been expected, technical issues although complex were not the hardest to handle imagining Elia’s new headquarters. The real challenge was the scope of continually evolving information and constraints to be integrated into the design. The result is deciphered in this paper for the 2012 PHsymposium in Brussels.

bruxelles architecture de 1950 a aujourd'hui

More like a catalogue, over 400 built projects in Brussels are presented here offering a clear and recognizable whiff of what makes up the city. This is an honest no-frills view of key projects … some pertinent, some less so. From the 1960s beehive concept at the CBR Headquarters (by Brodzki/Lambrichs, pgs 58-59)  to the National Theatre’s  transluscent veil 50 years later (by architectesassoc/Escaut/Gigogne,

exemplary buildings, success stories from brussels

“… is it possible to imagine a city becoming more beautiful, more practical and more economical to live in, while at the same time becoming more sustainable ? This was the challenge the Brussels-Capital Region set itself in 2007 – and its response was to launch the BATEX call for (exemplary) projects … the whole idea is to leverage each project, whether large or small, whether private or public, to spread the word about

the nzeb trail: bpie report

« Following its main mission to contribute to the improvement of the buildings’ energy performance across Europe, BPIE started in December 2010 a study to support the EPBD implementation by developing a well-founded opinion on principles for nearly Zero-Energy Buildings, based on the current status and on existing concepts for low energy buildings. The nZEB study is designed to lead to:

shared architecture

This special issue of the quarterly magazine BE.PASSIVE (in english) announces Brussels’ 2015 passive plunge. Marta Di Vincenzo‘s article page 33 presents Aeropolis II (cover picture) with extensive descriptions of the work process, detailing and on-site adjustments. She concludes : « … examples of projects such as this, highly positive in terms of architectural quality, energy savings and comfort mean that investors

belgium new architecture

The series BELGIUM NEW ARCHITECTURE presents a carefully selected array of contemporary projects in Belgium, including the National Theatre, the Royale-Brialmont, and Aeropolis II.  The editors’ enthousiastic hope is to promote calculated risk in architecture : daring something new and fresh, initiating change … and convincing  readers through the built examples shown that it’s down-to-earth do-able and