Gare Maritime

“Gare Maritime” is a former freight station in Brussels that has been vacant for quite some time.

The exceptional architectural features, in detail as in space ratios, of the building have encouraged the owner Extensa to maintain and restore the building and create commercial and office spaces within this large volume.

To this end, the large hall is being renovated into a well-insulated envelope in which the office volumes are given a place. By means of this insulation package on the one hand and an intelligent control system for the parts of the facade and roof that open, an acceptable indoor climate has been created within the hall itself in which activities can take place for most of the year.

The moderate temperature in the hall will lead to a lower energy consumption of the built-in volumes and losses to the outside environment are greatly limited compared to a traditional new-build situation.

The offices and retail zones themselves are climatised by using a geothermal loop with ATES (Aquifiers Thermal Energy Storage) and to which individual heat pumps are connected. Cooling happens integrally passively and heating is always done through the intervention of these heat pumps. The system also results in a valorisation of the simultaneously occurring heat and cooling requirements in the various buildings, as such the ATES is less burdened and an optimum return is obtained.

The remaining electricity demand was reduced by installing a significant amount of photovoltaic panels.

During the entire project special attention was paid to a wide range of sustainability aspects by the use of simulation software: temperatures, light, use of materials, etc. These were also validated within a BREEAM assessment methodology.