Kantoor2023

A sustainable and circular building in Brussels

In 2017, the Agency for Facility Operations from the Government of Flanders launched a Competitive Procedure with Negotiation for the procurement of the design and construction of a building for city employees. The resulting project is a renovation – of the two towers of the World Trade Centre (WTC) in Brussels - with construction of a new block annexed between the towers. From 2023 onwards, 3,900 civil servants will work in Kantoor2023 – a residential-work complex which showcases sustainability and circularity. The site will cover approximately 110,000 m², split between office, residential and hotel accommodation, sports areas, leisure areas, catering and retail businesses.

In terms of circularity, the existing buildings are being used to the maximum. The underground floors and the circulation cores will be preserved, but what will be demolished will be given a new lease of life. In total, this means that 62% of the current building will be reused or recycled. The parts that are broken down are given a new life – for instance, 30,000 tonnes of the broken concrete is going to be used as recycled granulates in the new concrete, and will be Cradle-to-cradle (C2C) certified.

Download the full case study here.