Sustainable Architecture Design Studio - Bruface - 2021-22 - Master 1 ULB+VUB

University and city: Towards a sustainable (re)development of the Brussels University District (BUD)

This year's Sustainable Design Studio (SDS) project is focused on the theme of 'high density mixed use' aiming to explore possibilities for a sustainable development of the Brussels University District (BUD) and the Solbosch Campus (ULB). During the first semester, students worked in groups to develop a sustainable urban design framework in the form of a master plan and future program. In the second semester, the students worked individually on a building or building cluster within their master plan to develop a sustainable architectural project.

The site is ULB's Solbosch campus, a site of 16 ha situated in the south of Brussels. Only a relatively small percentage of the campus is built, and yet it offers very little spaces of conviviality. In the absence of a development strategy, the university gradually kept building, extending, modifying, … over a period of 10 decades. The result is a satu rated campus, lacking readability and coherence. Topographical differences, conflicting car and pedestrian fluxes, lack of permeable surfaces and flood hazard, lack of a pleasant realm, add to the problem.

The aim of the studio is to develop a vision for a “University of the Future”, an urban framework for the future development of the Solbosch campus and imagine sustainable buildings that provide answers for the inevitable transition of the exist ing campus.

The main aspects to investigate are the identity of the Brussels University District within its urban context; the proper arrangement of functions and spaces for a university of the future taking in ac

count the ever growing number of students, staff and researchers ; the sustainability challenges of the university for the next hundred years; and the changes induced by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Other aspect that should be taken in account : a CO2-neutral district; a resilient campus open to the neighborhood; a green park and other high-quality public spaces; a completely car-free soft mobility district; a building density of about 1.5 FAR; a learning-hub; affordable student and / or other housing; various economic activities and public amenities; innovative ways of maximizing permeable surfaces, such as NBS (Natural-Based Solutions/Landscape Infrastructure) that connect to the larger green and blue network, etc.

Through the two semesters various visions for a sustainable development of the campus were developed in the form of a master plan (Sustainable Urban Design Studio, 1st semester) and buildings (Sustainable Architectural Design Studio, 2nd semester). In both cases the students' design work was guided by these issues and by a series of questions that had to be addressed on both scales.

What is the right density and scale? What degree of environmental sustainability? What is the right mix of uses? How to rethink mobility around on and on campus?

The aim is to provide a thought through and di verse set of innovative ideas. By developing them in the framework of the Sustainable Design Studio they participate in creatively redefining the Solbosch campus as the university (ULB) is deliber ating on a more inclusive vision for sustainable development of their campus and building stock.

PORTAL FRAME

Portal Frame is a sustainable landmark where art and science meet by offering a flexible program for a diverse public. Located at the entrance of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, it wants to attract the city and the students with a generous green entrance that is representative for the university of the future. A framework with various types of open spaces gives the opportunity for using the building 24/7 with a mixed program that is adaptable for future changes. Users can meet in the informal meeting spaces that are arranged around the central circulation or in the culture cafe. Vegetables are locally produced on the roof or in the winter gardens. The timber structure, cladding and shading that give the building its distinctive look, together with the green roof gardens, will make visitors experience a sense of sustainability.

Section winter garden: SSE facade

Elevation: NNW facade

Elevation: WSW facade

Sustainability scheme

MATERIALS

Concrete core and foundation Glulam column and beams, CLT floor slabs

Timber louvres and cladding

CONCEPT

The renovation project consists of the transformation of the bourgeois houses located on Avenue Adolphe Buyl, at the entrance to the Solbosch campus of the ULB. These Brussels houses were built at the beginning of the 20th century and are part of a homogeneous row of buildings of the same style, going up to n°131. The houses on which this proposal focuses range from house number 115 to 131. Indeed, these 9 houses have a similar typology and structure. The facades are of Art Nouveau and eclectic inspiration, in brick and blue stone. Currently, these houses are owned by the university and are occupied by the administration, the management, the secretariat, and some student clubs. The objective of the design is to build a sustainable architecture for the university life of the future. After investigating the different needs of the university, it became necessary to provide student accommodations and group workspaces on the campus. There fore, I wanted to incorporate student housing into these houses to allow students to live together and to make student life feel more like a community. By com bining different groups of houses, the key concept of this proposal is to break the typical principle of a Brussels house to integrate co-living in all its parts. A new extension to these houses is also planned to provide a co-working space and to extend the co-living. In each group of houses, students will have the choice of living in separate rooms, or in a studio or duplex. They will share common indoor and outdoor spaces such as the terrace, living room, dining room and kitchen that will foster student bonds. In addition, per group of houses, the residents will have the possibility to share the bicycle garage and the laundry room. Despite the complexity of the interior structures, the spaces have been designed and thought out to be accessible to everyone, including the people with mobility disabilities. The entire design has been developed with social, environmental, and economic aspects in mind.

nouveau/

Masterplan

Current Situation

Design

SOCIAL

Separation: Dividing co-living with coworking with patios

Solid-Void: Alternating solid void for quality spaces

Co-living: Students living together

Co-working: Students working together ECONOMIC Flexible spaces: Opening/closing of spaces

Sharing: Share of home appliances

Retrofit: Reuse of the core structure

Circulation: decrease initial circulation area

ENVIRONMENTAL

Insulation: Thermal insulation of wall, roof, floor

Solar gain: Harvesting daylight from the facade and openings

Green areas: Integration of green areas in the space

Materials: Bricks (old core structure) and wood (new extension)

Demolished Part

Retained and Renovated Part

Section All the Houses

Longitudinal

House on Bassett

London, UK

Health & Wellbeing Centre, Edinburgh, UK

Facade

Adolphe Buyl

The ULB sports building was designed by Robert Puttemans in a modernist style. It is constructed in 1962. Nowadays, the building does not comply anymore to the building standards in terms of energy, space and program. The circulation around as well as inside the building is problematic and decreases the quality of the spaces.

To solve the circulation problem, a connection was made between the sports building and the E2 building. Then, the buil ding was extended to create more space. This brings a new façade on three sides of the building which will drastically improve the energy performance. The new skin of the building also solves the inside circulation and acts as a meeting space for students and neighbourhood. The new circulation in the core of the building connects all the functions together. The big staircase invites the users to explore the building and to meet each other.

Sustainability is a key element in the design process. The building provides a healthy and sustainable environment for its users by retrofitting and recycling the original structure, collecting rainwater etc. For the users, ventilation and daylight are the most important elements to make a sports building comfortable. The forest on the east side of the building pro vides clean air which is suitable for cross ventilation. Shading elements are implemented in the façade to prevent hinder from direct sunlight.

All these design aspects contribute to making a sustainable ULB health center which is constantly activated by students and neighbourhood.

Facade

ventilation

Rainwater

HEALTH CENTER AND POOL

STUDENT: FLEUR DILIËN

Context Volume

Structure

The Health Center is located at the heart of the Solbosch campus, in a sequence of public spaces which embody a variety of atmospheres. Both physical and mental well-being are the focus here. In terms of physical health, this translates into the presence of various sports facilities such as a swimming pool, a gym, various sports fields as well as spaces for physiotherapy. In terms of mental health, there is room for group talks and individual sessions, but also for mindfulness and yoga. In addition, the entire center is a meeting place for both people from the neighbourhood and people from the university. By opening the facilities to a variety of people, the Health

Center contributes to the urban environment and promotes a healthy lifestyle. These essential elements were a major motivation for the volumetry of the building that supports a range of activities and seeks connection with its surroundings. Furthermore, is the design developed with sustainability in mind. Solar strategies such as well thoughtout shading possibilities, solar panels and thermal mass, but also cross ventilation and rainwater harvesting are incorporated for this purpose. The wooden supporting structure not only creates a pleasant environment but also makes the link with the variety of green spaces in the vicinity of the Health Center.

Implementation in masterplan

Detail pool Atmosphere

Mezzanine

Cross ventilation Solar strategies

Section

STUDENT:

MENS

The F building of the ULB Solbosch campus is centrally loca-ted. This gives the building the perfect opportunity to beco-me not only the literal, but also the figurative “heart of the campus”. Because the building is centrally located, many im-portant axes run alongside it. As a result, the entire ground floor can be activated. The difference in height between the south-eastern and north-western façades provides the per-fect opportunity to include landscape elements such as ur-ban stairs in the design process in order to activate the first floor as well.Because the building is centrally located and easily accessible from everywhere on the campus, a food hub is an ide-al feature.

This food hub consists of a food market in the southern part of the building and the student restaurant in the northern part. In order to make the F-building attractive after working hours as well, a multipurpose room has been provided on the first floor where workshops, lectures and oc-casions can be held. In addition, this space is also available to the student housing above as a “chilling space”. As just men-tioned, on top of the food hub, both student and research housing will take place. Finally, on the roof, there is a large greenhouse from which the organic food produced can be used both for the food hub and for the residents.

South-west elevation

At 50 metres high, Building S is not only a landmark on the campus, but it has also been part of the Brussels skyline for 50 years. The slender and elegant volume forms the transition between the campus and the lower Brussels Uni versity District. However, the height of the building also creates a wall between university life and the neighbourhood. By creating a welcome square in front of the building and opening up the facade, this link can be strengthened again. The square is defined by 2 compact and light volumes that provide the circulation flow. This plinth is opened up to the public by integrating a (public) library and a bookshop. Part of the car park will also be transformed into extra auditoria. Furthermore, at the campus level it will contain the info point and a café for and by the students. The tower will be completely stripped and provided with a new facade adapted to the energy standards and daylight regulations. This narrow volume will accommodate various types of housing, including cohousing and research housing. There will also be space for traditional offices as well as coworking spaces. The voids in the facade house covered gardens that can be used by users to hold informal meetings or to enjoy the view over Brussels.

Concept

Lightweight, reversible and com pact volume

Water harvesting

Thermic shell

Parking and

Parking

Parking

Parking

Sqm Housing

Private unit 54

675 Cohousing (3 persons) 18

Sqm Housing

900 Researchers (2 persons) 12

Sqm

250 Private unit 54

Sqm Housing

675 Cohousing (3 persons) 18

250 Private unit 54

250 Private unit 54

900 Researchers (2 persons)

385

675 Cohousing (3 persons) 18

675 Cohousing (3 persons) 18

900 Researchers (2 persons) 12

900 Researchers (2 persons) 12

385

385

1m 2m

10m

5m

B'

B

0

B'

B'

+9 +13/+14

B 0

10m

0

5m

10m

5m

10m

1m 2m

1m 2m

0

1m 2m

5m

North facade

STUDENT: KAJ-WOLF DEPUYDT

Birdseye-view of the F1-building (anno 2021)

Birdseye-view of the proposition for the F1-building

Upon arriving at the Solbosch campus one is immediately struck by shear disappointment when perceiving the building located in its center. Today the F1 building is a mere conjunction of distinct looking buildings blocks that are the result of several interventions that have been performed since its construction in the 1930s.

The project “Active Hub” offers the Solbosch campus a new heart around which life on campus can revolve. As it concerns a refur bishment of the existing F1 building, a lot of attention has been given to recuperating as much of the existing building. Therefore the original core of the building, dating back to the 1930s, is being kept and functions as the main load bearing structure. The thermal retrofitting of the building is achieved by insulating the left over building from the outside.

Furthermore a new envelope is created by providing a glass curtain wall façade at the side of the Avenue Heger. The placement of this facade creates a new kind of interspace which can house the circulation and serve as an extension of the interior spaces of the build ing. By doing this, the space of the existing building can be fully utilized for its new function: a learning center. While also providing a more dynamic and visible connection to Avenue Heger. The new façade along with the several other volumes that are added also serve as a thermal buffer to ensure the thermal comfort of the learning spaces. Lastly a great deal of attention has been given to the roof, which together with the façade regulates the environmental and thermal performance of the building through daylighting and ventila tion strategies. While also providing the building with sun-energy through the solar panels. The distinct form of the building and the roof are a direct result of an analysis of the environmental context.

CONCEPT

MASTERPLAN

STUDENT SERVICES 4173 m²

Cafetaria 3088 m² Shop 476 m²

technical space 609 m²

EDUCATIONAL 7052 m²

center 5786 m²

exhibition spaces

individual reading +

collaboration rooms for group work

digital rooms

learning class rooms (auditoria) 1266 m²

m²

Perspective view from Avenue Heger

Perspective view from interior

Perspective view from Avenue Heger

Conceptual sketch from Parking Janson

Elevation Parking Janson

Passive

Tempered

Original

(c) Blaf-architecten

of the roof

columns -

of the roof

The Solbosch Learning Center, a building originally built in 1930, is located in the middle of the Solbosch Campus. Throughout the years, the original structure of the building has gotten lost within added volumes, resulting in a bulky building difficult to navigate. In order to fully exploit the qualities of the building and the area, it is retrofitted to better suit the modern fast paced lifestyle of the students and the universi ty staff. The building is shortened to allow space for a new sports complex and the bulky additions on the lower floors are taken away. Openings are created to allow a flow throughout the building and a passage from the busy Paul Héger Avenue to the calm and se rene Janson Park.

A building entirely devoted to the students of the university, entails functions serving the student which translates in coworking and study spaces but also more specific educational areas, such as a com puter lab and laboratories. The lower levels of the building host a campus restaurant and an open au ditorium which can serve multiple purposes, from an informal lecture to an art exhibition.

The age of the building does pose some economic and environmental problems. The insulation does not an swer the current demands, which is why hempbased insulation is added as a thermal buffer to help regu late the temperature. A glazed façade is also added to the South-facing façade to allow passive solar heat gains. A newly added lightweight greenhouse at the top of the structure also allows for natural ventila tion and sliding shading panels are installed on the glazed façade to protect against over-heating.

Conceptual development

North facade

elevation

As the Solbosch university campus is growing day by day, the need for a more efficient sports infrastructure increases with every student enrolling at the unversity. Not only among students, but also amongst the “campus neigh bours” there is a need for an easy accessible and comfortable location for practicing sports. However, sport connects people of all ages and cultures, which makes the renovation of the ULB sports building an opportunity of creating more then just a sports centre. INTERACTIVE presents a mixed use sports building: a socially sustainable environment which enables young and old to practice sports together, meet new people and learn new things. The modular sports rooms are adapted to provide the possibility of educational use during the day, which optimises the efficiency of the built space. Moreover, the interaction between student and city is not the only connection to be enhanced. Connections to the environment, in both the lit

eral and the figurative sense of the word, is as important, as the current energetic performance is another problematic given of the current building. Moreover, the misuse of the building’s unique location near the small cam pus forest indicates yet another missed opportuniy today to make a spe cial experience out of sports at Solbosch. Finally , this optimisation of the connections between student, city, environment and the existing buidling envelope, will create a pleasable infrastructure on the lively campus area, which will stimulate people to finally take that particular sports class they always wanted to take, but never had the time for...

BUILDING-ENVIRONMENT

Double

Use

STUDENT-CITY

Concept & program

Circulation & Plans

Axonometrie Circulation and program

Detailed sustainable strategies

Double façade

STUDENT: BEULLENS SARA

Concept

Green

Interaction

Mutlifunctional

Presentation

As part of our Master’s course in Sustainable Architectural Design Studio, the aim of the exercise was to design a building on the Solbosch campus of the ULB.

The masterplan of the latter had been redesigned during the first semester of this year 2021-2022. This masterplan, carried out as a group, provided new buildings, renovation of existing buildings and public (green) spaces.

The building chosen and presented to the jury is a new building along the main axis of the Solbosch campus, namely the Paul Héger avenue. This building was originally designed to contain a public swimming pool, sport facilities, auditoriums, classrooms and a cafeteria, availiable for both the community and the students.

The building is surrounded by important areas, such as the “little forest” to the north, the Janson car-park to the south (redesigned in the Masterplan as a park), and the piazza to the east.

As a public building along the main axis, the idea is to provide public functions for students and the community that are missing in the vicinity of the Solbosch campus. The purpose of those public functions is to attract the public to the campus and, thus, bring diversity and life to the latter.

form

In order to provide such a dynamic building and environment, three concepts are used: interaction in between different functions, multifunctionality and the implementation of open-air sports fields and green areas on the roofs.

The first concept characterises not only the physical and visual interactions from the inside to the outside of the building but also the interaction between the different functions within the edifice.

The second concept aims to provide a multifunctional building that mixes two different functions: a learning centre and a sports hall. The learning centre is located on the square of the building, along with the main circulation, and the sports functions in the “wings” of the building.

Finally, in order to design a “sustainable” building, the design incorporates open-air sport fields, terraces, green roofs and offers possibilities to place photovoltaic panels as well. On these roofs rainwater is collected and used within the building.

Henning Larsen, Wolfsburg (Germany)

Tatiana Bilbao, Park Building (Mexico)

NL architects, SOZAWE (Netherlands)

Plan R+2

Plan R+1

Plan

R+4