Just outside Ghent's city center, Oryx Projects is developing the Keizerpoort project, a mix of living, working and shopping. Notable are the combi buses for heating the apartments and the very extensive charging station infrastructure.
The project is designed by awg architects and is being built by contractor Jan De Nul between the Brusselsesteenweg and the French Canal, a branch of the Scheldt. It includes 37 apartments, 3 houses, approximately 5,000 m2 of office space, 3,000 m2 of commercial space and approximately 250 underground parking spaces spread over 3 levels.
De-duplicated techniques
Block A1 will have 2 commercial spaces on the ground floor. The 8 floors above are planned for offices, with each level de-duplicating the techniques to allow 2 separate entities each. On the roof are 2 air groups of 11,000 m³/h and a chiller of 460 kW. Comfort in this block is ensured by means of air conditioning ceilings and top cooling. Block B includes 3 compact houses with 3 floors each. A type D ventilation system ensures a perfect indoor climate.
Combilus
The apartments are located in Block A2 and Block C. Above the driveway and walkways to the underground parking, Block A2 will have 4 office spaces and 2 apartments on the second floor. Floors 2 to 4 are exclusively for apartments. Each apartment will be connected to a communal combi loop, in which hot water circulates for sanitary applications and for space heating. The central heat generation eliminates the need for separate central heating boilers per apartment, and allows a favorable EPB score to be achieved.
A similar situation is found in Block C, where 4 floors of apartments are being built above the ground floor with hospitality areas. In both blocks the ventilation per apartment is done with system D.
Charging station plan updated
The rapid evolution of fleet electrification also affected the charging station infrastructure in this project. Originally, 23 charging points were planned. This evolved in the implementation phase to the pre-installation of 188 charging points. 100 of these will be on level -3 and are all linked to office functions[JVC1] . The remaining 88 come in the parking lot on level -2, and are divided between again 28 spaces for offices, 38 for residents of the apartments above and finally 22 closed garage boxes.
Washing bicycles
Thus, the 3 underground levels occupy an important place in this project. An RWA installation there ensures safe evacuation in case of fire and an emergency power generator comes into operation in case of power outages on the public grid.
Electricity enters the site, on the one hand via an internal distribution cabin of the grid operator that distributes power to the residential entities (classic house connections) and on the other hand via a high-voltage customer cabin with 3 separate transformers for the larger customers: 1 of 250 kVA for the ALDI branch, 1 of 630 kVA for Block A1, an independently functioning office building, and 1 of 800 kVA for the substructure, including the charging infrastructure.
There is also a large underground parking lot for regular and cargo bikes, with 9 charging points for electric versions. Remarkably, there is also an installation for washing bicycles. Project Keizerpoort is thus fully geared to the various modes of transport, which is an obvious choice given its location next to a freeway exit, with a busy streetcar line on the doorstep and close to the city center.
Want to know more about this project? Contact our expert Ruben Putman by email at ruben.putman@ingenium.be or by phone at 050 40 45 30.
