Boondael 447

Context

A 1930s home located on a busy street, the building originally housed a gravestone shop a few steps from the Ixelles Cemetery. As the business was reaching the end of activity, its elderly owner decided to sell it off. The lot includes the original building, with its 7-metre red-brick façade and a hollow tooth adjoining the terrace of the famous student café Le Tavernier. At the complete depth, the dimensions of the land are 15 metres at the front and 80 metres in length.

Project study

For the reconversion of the site, Gillion conducted an analysis of the district and its needs. The future building had to integrate three functions : student housing with an ideal location between ULB and VUB, a business well located in the Chaussée de Boondael and parking, which is hard to find in the district.  

Due to the size constraint to obtain the permit, the urban planning required the preservation of the existing façade, which meant adapting the architectural plans to respect the windows and heights under ceilings of the old residence. From the point of view of building energy performance (BEP), the building therefore combined two distinct working methods: first, heavy renovation and second, new construction. The new building, with its modern white façade, will be juxtaposed against the old façade to form a single building. However, the exterior will give the impression of two separate buildings.

Production

The building is intended to accommodate 25 student housing units of 25 m² each, including 4 duplexes with mezzanine and a 1-bedroom apartment of 66 m² in the basement. Each kot has a bathroom with shower and toilet and an equipped kitchen. The 1st and 3rd floors have a common room with dining table and sofa. On the ground floor, the building hosts commercial premises (bakery) of 123 m², with a cellar of 75 m². Finally, the building is equipped with a car park with 17 spaces for rent.

Placed in the interior of the block and surrounded by adjoining walls, the car park required specific planning. Indeed, in addition to the height constraint imposed by the adjacent walls, it is located on sloping ground. It was therefore necessary to create a semi-underground car park not exceeding 1.5 metres deep to limit the amount of excavated earth to be processed. Another constraint was the terrace of Le Tavernier, with its lime tree, which had to be preserve intact, which required reinforcement work on the foundations to allow the café to continue to operate throughout the construction project.

Construction

From the beginning, the construction teams had to face a major planning constraint : they had 18 months available to them, whereas 6 more months were needed.  To implement the operations, they constructed the building and the car park in parallel. In addition, the constraints linked to the centre of the block and the securing of the adjacent terrace directed the project towards the use of interpile sheeting. Preferably used in urban areas, these allow the earthworks to be prepared by building a support with H-shaped metal profiles.

Given the proximity to Le Tavernier, the acoustic study led to the placement of triple glazing, up to Velux. To ensure better energy performance, the outer envelope was also given special attention, as well as LED lighting and a gas heating system (two boilers each with a two-stage distribution loop).  The building is therefore passive and high technology, thanks to a keyless opening system using a badge or smartphone.