Located in Brussels, the Elite House building - delivered in January 2020 by Duchêne, a subsidiary of Eiffage Benelux - accommodating shops, offices and housing, was awarded LEED PLATINUM certification in November. With 89 points, this makes Elite House the best rated building for this environmental certification in Belgium!
First of all, what is LEED certification? Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design provides independent verification that a building, home or community has been designed and built using strategies to achieve high performance in key areas of human and environmental health. These include location and transportation, environmentally friendly site design, water conservation, energy efficiency, material selection and indoor environmental quality.
Begun in November 2016, the work involved the removal of asbestos, demolition and reconstruction of the building with 11 levels (including 3 basements), 3,500sqm of retail space, 3,200sqm of office space and two flats.
In order to obtain this certification, various specific features were put in place on this site, in particular :
- Recycling of rubble from the demolition work;
- The use of recycled materials, local materials and products that do not generate waste;
- The use of water rethought in the building (use of rainwater, use of water-saving sanitary appliances such as toilets, taps, etc.);
- The drastic reduction of waste produced by the building site;
- The achievement of optimum airtightness of the building to avoid pollution from outside;
- The considerable reduction in energy consumption linked to the operation of the building (installation of photovoltaic panels, installation of external blinds, implementation of a sophisticated building management system, management of the luminosity in each room of the building, etc.).
Congratulations to our operational teams in Belgium at Duchêne and Sodemat (for the tower crane and formwork equipment) for this fine distinction, as well as to our partners: Vastint and the Ateliers de Genval architectural firm.
Photo credit: Luc Seresiat.