News

Ghent University's faculty of political and social sciences recently moved into the Technicum, located in Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat between the UFO and the student restaurant De Brug.

Flanders imposes a renovation requirement for all non-residential buildings with a new owner as of Jan. 1, 2022. Large non-residential buildings must also use at least 5 percent renewable energy within the five years of purchase starting Jan. 1, 2023.

In recent years it has regularly surfaced in our media: water is becoming a scarce commodity. There are various sustainable alternatives to save on expensive drinking water. The projects De Nieuwe Dokken in Ghent and Hof Van Saeys in Dendermonde are textbook examples of what is possible in this area.

Technical operation: how to manage it more clearly? The operation of a building constitutes a major cost item from its completion. Expenses are mainly replacement investments, optimizations around comfort, energy efficiency and compliance with environmental requirements, including a gradual transition to CO2 neutrality. Efficient investment and cost management requires all-round data-based technical management of operations.

Europe wants to be emission-free by 2050. Since the existing building stock is responsible for 36 percent of those emissions, that is where the key lies. Therefore, the EU mandates a smart building management system for medium- and large-scale buildings by 2025. Next steps may include SMART certificates and a Campus or Site Management System, where buildings exchange energy needs and surpluses.

In the "Carousel Agriculture" project, the laboratories and offices of the KU Leuven Agricultural Institute are being redesigned. This with a renewal of all techniques.

Like Ingenium, many of our customers are currently developing large-scale charging infrastructure for their current, as well as future, electric vehicle fleets.

To be carbon-neutral by 2050, the Green Deal wants Europe to emit a net 55 percent less CO2 than in 1990 by 2030. Building heating plays an important role in this. A heat zoning map per municipality or area - now "inspiration map" - is a first step in preparing for the transition. For concrete policy, however, a heat policy plan is needed. What are the focal points in this? What role does psychology play in this story? And what is the link with mobility?

Met de maatschap DEVI slaan 4 ervaren West-Vlaamse spelers in de bouwsector de handen in elkaar om sterker te staan in grote industriële (ver)bouwprojecten van Belgische en buitenlandse opdrachtgevers. “Onze klanten zijn technische mensen. Wij zijn dat ook. Zo is er snel wederzijds begrip”, vertellen Frederik Moortgat (Establis) en Bart Verplancke (Industrium).

COP 26 in Glasgow will hopefully bring the attention of world leaders back to the gigantic challenge posed by climate transition. As a European organization, with top engineering companies in each country, the FIRST Q network definitely wants to do its part in making the building stock more sustainable, responsible for 40% of global CO2 emissions.

Het gebouw met de imposante voormalige dactylozaal is nu een plek waar kunstacademies zich kunnen ontplooien. Samen met WIT architecten zijn we er in geslaagd om de moderne technieken op een subtiele, onzichtbare manier te integregen en zo de authenticiteit van het monument te bewaren.

In all buildings where multiple people congregate - such as offices, schools, meeting and event spaces - healthy air quality is even higher on the agenda due to the corona pandemic. Are CO2 meters and air purifiers the solution to acute problems? And what about the long term?

TTAS theater construction has been part of the Ingenium Group for over two years now. High time to highlight an exciting project: the renewal of the flywall at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. Most theaters make every effort to make their theatrical installations as invisible as possible to the public. That is why they are most often done in black. Ancienne Belgique, however, likes to put them - literally! - in paint. RAL3003 (ruby red) and RAL3017 (pale red) to be exact.

Ingenium is helping the city government of Mechelen develop a heat strategy. With this, the city wants to be one of the forerunners in Flanders to initiate the heat transition. With a clear vision and a concrete action plan, the Mechelen building patrimony must be heated and cooled fossil-free by 2050. Therefore, Ingenium is making a series of heat-related maps for the entire territory of the city. These include the current and future heat demand, the existing heat supply in the city and an estimate of the renovation potential. Using these policy maps as a basis, we draw up heat zoning plans: a road map in which we propose concrete solutions to make each specific subarea of the city fossil-free in steps. For example, we examine where the application of a heat network could be interesting and where not.

Ingenium is collaborating with VITO and Jorn Verbeeck (as expert team) and with the various departments involved of the City of Bruges in drawing up a 2030 climate plan for Bruges.

Cybersecurity has been high on the agenda in recent years, especially among companies and organizations. At the IT level, the leaks have usually already been plugged, but when it comes to OT infrastructure, the risks are still too often underestimated. However, the continuity of business processes and the protection of personal information are crucial. A cybersecurity audit can reveal the areas for improvement. Over the last 10 years, in the field of cybersecurity in buildings, much attention has been paid to the pure IT infrastructure such as computers and printers. However, OT - operational technology - is still too often treated as a stepmother. However, the use of cameras, access control, fire detection and building management systems for cooling and heating that are connected to the network, among others, has increased dramatically. This makes OT infrastructure vulnerable to misuse. A lot of building managers or users are unaware of the potential risks of poor OT protection. For example, access control software contains personal data subject to the GDPR. A poorly secured camera system allows hackers to look around your building. It not only violates the privacy of those who walk around in it, but can also lead to physical break-ins and theft. Hacking the cooling or heating systems can cause a production facility to shut down. And these are just a few examples. Action is taken not only at the technical level but also at the organizational level. This is done according to the principle of Organizational Physical Electronic Notification Measures (OFEM). That OFEM principle can be applied in both the physical and virtual world.

For the Hoost residential project in Knokke-Heist, Ingenium is responsible for the design of the techniques. The building will be fossil-free, all heating and cooling will be produced via a BTES and heat pumps. The project, based on a global concept by French architect Jakob MacFarlane, is being realized together with B2Ai architects and CAAAP -Artes Group. It will be an unprecedented colorful architectural construction in Belgium, apartments with terraces are mixed with houses with gardens in height. On the lower floors, public parts (municipal administration, police, ...) find their place. © CAAAP

Our director innovation & sustainability Pedro Pattijn attended the IBPSA congress BS2021 in Bruges. There he gave a presentation on 'Heat mapping & district heating simulation tool'.

In het gebouw van de toekomst wordt slim omgaan met energie van primordiaal belang. Niet enkel om economische en ecologische redenen, maar ook uit praktische overwegingen. De doorbraak van elektrische wagens en smart grids brengt immers enorme uitdagingen met zich mee. Zeker in een wereld waar de roep om comfort en efficiëntie steeds luider klinkt. Toch staan gebouwbeheerders en facility managers niet voor een onmogelijke opdracht. Met de intelligentie die tegen dan wellicht inherent aan de grotere gebouwen zal zijn, beschikken ze over een belangrijke tool om deze strijd aan te gaan.

The intuitive BIMvisible app that Ingenium developed together with Savaco and In The Pocket puts BIM models 'on' the real situation via Augmented Reality in actual size.

Het consortium Hortus Conclusus haalde de opdracht binnen voor het ontwerp, de bouw, de financiering en het onderhoud van de nieuwe gevangenis in Antwerpen. Ingenium staat samen met Hootmans architectuurbureau, ARCH & TECO en Bureau Bas Smets in voor het ontwerp.

Wanneer we het te warm hebben, voelen we ons niet comfortabel. We beginnen te zweten, krijgen dorst en stress, en we voelen onze energie wegvloeien. Dit zorgt ervoor dat we heel wat minder productief zijn. Net daarom is het beperken van oververhitting een must in een nieuwbouw, maar ook bij ingrijpende renovaties.

The popularity of electric vehicles has soared in the past year. The charging infrastructure urgently needs to keep up with this evolution. Therefore, the Flemish government imposes minimum standards for new construction projects and major renovations. Existing buildings must also have charging points by 2025. What do you need to consider when installing them now, and to be ready for stricter standards in the future?

Om haar biobanken te centraliseren, bouwt UZ Leuven – KU Leuven een nieuwe faciliteit. In onderzoeksgebouw O&N4 (KU Leuven) op de campus Gasthuisberg wordt daarvoor een zone van 2.500 m² voorzien. De aanleg van een centrale biobank inclusief cryotheek vereist niet alleen professionele apparatuur maar ook een hoogperformante technische installatie.

In maart 2021 was Koen Van Canneyt – onze Expert Cleanrooms & Laboratories – een van de sleutelspelers op het Egnaton Forum over laboratoria. Hij gaf toelichting op de Virtual Lab Tour in de nieuwbouwlaboratoria O&N1bis en O&N5 van de KU Leuven en nam deel aan een internationaal panel over energiereductie in labogebouwen.