To achieve state-of-the-art renovation concepts, a lot of designing, engineering and discussing is required. At the moment, two design teams are working on renovation concepts for the buildings: one team for the social houses in Nieuw Texas and one for the Garden City dwellings in Waterschei. For the social houses, an architect and engineering firm has been selected. Together with social housing company Nieuw Dak and VITO, they are currently shaping the renovation concepts, defining technical specifications, solving thermal bridges, building a BIM model etc. For the Garden City dwellings, a lot of work is being done to find a balance between their cultural heritage value, which requires maintaining the current view of the buildings as much as possible, and improving their energy performance, making them future-proof.
In addition to the design plans on the building level, plans are also made to realise an infrastructure on the neighbourhood level. Currently, we are exploring the needs of the citizens, the requirements of the city and the ambitions of industry and researchers, which will all be put together in a co-creation process.
oPEN Living Lab Genk – Our design teams are working hard
