THE ENERGY FUTURE OF EXISTING BUILDINGS IN BRUSSELS: BETWEEN PRESERVATION AND PERFORMANCE

To meet the fire spread criteria horizontally as well as vertically, one fewer window was placed between every two apartments. A few photos of the façade panel are included for illustrative purposes: figure 15 shows the original situation and figure 16 shows the new façade panel installed in front of the structure.

In addition to the façade, all of the terraces were replaced. For each terrace, an arch was dismantled and replaced with a new prefab element through which the concrete nosing runs. That prefab element was then connected to the structure with a thermal breaker so that no cold bridges were created along the terraces.

The manner in which the façade insulation was integrated is interesting. The building is, after all, built on stilts and the floor above the stilts has a brick façade with storage rooms and a large shaft for technical pipes and cables behind it. It was decided during the design process not to insulate this brick façade. The insulated volume includes the roof and the façade elements and runs along the top of the storage area and around the technical shaft.

The internal geometry was hardly altered. The arches were retained, except for the first arch along the façade, which was necessary for placing the façade panel. The screed was completely dismantled in order to make room for a new, independent floor complex so that no contact noise can be transferred via the structure. For reasons of fire safety, a lowered ceiling was placed in direct contact with the arches; this also proved beneficial to the acoustics. As mentioned earlier, the layout has a diagonal working to bring in light. The new layout is very similar to the original concept. The bathrooms and kitchens were changed slightly, but the interior stairs were kept. The compartmenting was improved as the lift airlocks and stairwells were separated by automatic fire doors. All of the railings have been adapted in some way. In the new façade, windows have disappeared in some places in order to solve the problems of overheating and fire spread.

Fig . 13

Sandwich panel principle (© Origin).

Fig . 14

Assembly sketch (© Origin).

Fig . 15

Current situation (© Origin).

Fig . 16

Detail of a concrete panel (© Origin).

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