December 12, 2024

Projects

Brussels University Hospital: comprehensive renovation and timeless architecture

The project redefines the campus with a focus on horizontality and aesthetic integration.

Brussels University Hospital, scheduled for completion in 2030, addresses the need to increase the surface area and reorganise services, improving accessibility and orientation within the complex.

For the renovation and extension of the Medical Technical Building (MTB), a key project in the strategic plan, integration with the existing buildings, which date back to the 1970s, has been sought. The aim was to create a contemporary look with timeless architecture. Emphasis has been placed on the horizontality of the campus to ensure the integration and purity of the hospital complex.

Achieving the maximum distance for the suspension of the façade panels has allowed a clear articulation of the horizontality, with black aluminium framed windows recessed deep into the structure.

The black bands create an accentuated contrast with the ceramic surfaces of the façade, with the overlapping enhanced by different heights, adding vitality. This approach provided a seamless link to the existing buildings, harmonising window heights and differences in level to create large, dynamic façade surfaces.

Aesthetics and visual continuity

The walls of the flat façade contrast with the new west façade, which suggests movement through its vertical slats, reflecting dynamism and careful aesthetics. In the new façade and the subways leading to the inner courtyard, the stone effect ceramic model has been used Rodano Acero (Porcelanosa), the ceramics have been installed in three formats which, laid with interlocking joints, ensure visual continuity throughout the exterior of the building.

For this project, Butech’s Technical Department has adapted Porcelanosa’s ventilated façade system with concealed anchoring for ceramics to the characteristics of the building. In this way, the thermal conditioning is improved, the total safety of the installation is guaranteed and the aesthetics of the building is enhanced.

In the III edition of PIPA (Porcelanosa International Project Awards), the projection and new image of Brussels University Hospital won the award for best project in the category ‘Facades’.

Architecture: Vk Architects + Engineers

Interior design: Ivan Missinne

Photography: ©Aikerim Asanbekova

View at Porcelanosa Projects.

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