The former barracks of the ‘Royal Gendarmerie School’ located in the heart of town are gradually getting a makeover. This site, which was purchased in 2018 by the Brussels-Capital Region, covers an area of 3.85 hectares.
This ambitious conversion project, called "Usquare.brussels", will combine family housing, student housing, university facilities and shops. It is supported by the Brussels-Capital Region, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), and coordinated by the SAU, Société d'Aménagement Urbain, the project's developer.
In this context, the SAU is taking a new step forward by publishing a call for project designers for the creation of 460 affordable student rooms with complementary facilities and retail spaces. The rooms will be spread over 4 buildings with a gross surface area of approximately 20,000 m². The operation includes several strategies for the conservation of existing buildings: the one with heritage value will be renovated and preserved, two others will be extensively restructured for transformation and the last one will be demolished and rebuilt.
The SAU wishes to make this student accommodation a model in terms of environmental sustainability and circular construction, which will result in particular in paying attention to the preservation of existing material resources, through maintenance and reuse strategies, through the use of materials with a low environmental impact, as well as exemplary management of the waste generated during the building works.
In order to offer affordable rent, a fair balance will have to be found between creative, efficient and sustainable architecture, controlled management of construction costs and ease of maintenance of the future buildings.
Applications must be submitted by 31.05.2024 at the latest.
To consult all the contract documents:
https://www.publicprocurement.be/publication-workspaces/133280fc-3dce-41e0-b3ed-afcd8bf6c686/general
