Inspired by the Japanese indoor garden, the imposing and sustainable residential project will have a natural and green area of no less than 6,000 m2, designed by landscape architect Bas Smets.

The apartment building has a core of steel and concrete around which a wooden skeleton adorns the building. With its hybrid construction, read less concrete, this residential tower responds to a more sustainable solution for the environment.

"I wanted to create a place where people can relax. In Japan, we have a term for that: Shinrin-yoku. Unwind by immersing yourself in greenery."

Shigeru Ban

Technical specifications:

Concrete frame (beams, columns) with prefabricated wooden façade.
Slabs composed of wood and concrete, executed as a hybrid construction.
Ventilation ducts are integrated into the slabs.
The wood remains visible as a wooden ceiling.
Wooden cladding.

The biggest technical challenge lies in associations of a wooden façade, highly unusual for high-rise buildings, with fire regulations.

Site tweet Block 21

Floor slab of the mid-rise building reaches level +5, the first double-height bays of the 'maisonettes' show up.

Site tweet Block 24

The first large structural columns of the tower shoot out of the ground.

BIM

Our BIM modellers modelled the BIM model architecture, excluding the layout of the flats and office areas. The BIM model stability was prepared by stability consultancy Greisch, the BIM model techniques by Sweco. To ensure proper coordination of the models between the study offices, the aspect models were exchanged regularly.

For us, the challenge of elaborating the 1st wooden tower in Belgium in BIM lay in organising and structuring the extensive library of elements that would shape the outer shell and its accessories. The particular focus on modelling and Shigeru Ban's specific façade design forced us to develop geometry and related data one-to-one.

The gross floor area of the project is 35,000 m².

22,500 elements were measured from the aspect model architecture.

As executive architect, we help the designing architects with all construction technical and financial issues, so that they can fully focus on the design. We also monitor the implementation and ensure that the objectives and plan are always crystal clear for all partners, so that together we can realise our dreams.