Office building De Pit

Project Support I Collaboration

Renovation of an existing building into the modern office building 'De Pit' to accommodate the support services of Urban Education in Antwerp.  

The modernist, repetitive office building from 1974 has 10 storeys: 1 underground, 8 above-ground storeys, and 1 retracted roof storey. The basement mainly serves as a technical room, secondary functions and archive. Behind the main building there is a car park on 3 levels.

Almost Energy Neutral
The Pit is a BEN building. The energy that is still needed for heating, ventilation, cooling and hot water is obtained from 130 solar panels. A rainwater reservoir can collect 50,000 litres of rainwater. This is used to flush the toilets.

Challenges

• According to the Royal Decree on Fire Safety, the building falls into the category of high-rise buildings. In order to meet the requirements of the Royal Decree and the Antwerp Fire Brigade, a number of significant measures have been taken to improve fire safety in the building. For example, the existing escape staircases were demolished and replaced, and structural adjustments were made to the core of the building. 
• The facade consists of a timber frame structure, clad with aluminium panels. 
• The caretaker's house on the roof has been replaced by a new structure from CLT. 
• During the implementation phase of a renovation project, you have to take into account aspects that were not known during the design phase. 

Bureau Bouwtechniek is responsible for supporting the architects from the competition phase onwards:

• the technical assistance during the design process,  
• the drawing up of the tender,  
• the estimate,  
• the monitoring of the construction phase.  

BB team: arch. Mark Sette, ir. arch. Marie Lievrouw, arch. ilze De Backer