This new building in Louvain-la-Neuve houses 500 employees that were previously spread across six sites. Nearly zero-energy? "This means that our energy balance is almost neutral. Our requirements in terms of heating, mechanical cooling and artificial lighting are limited and the energy used for those 3 items is almost counterbalanced by the electricity generated with the solar panels installed on the roof", explains Emmanuel Hazard, Project Leader for the new headquarters.?"And the icing on the cake is that we emit 90 tons less of CO2 into the atmosphere each year".
INNOVATION: LOUVRES AS AN EMBLEM?
Outside, the visitor's eye is immediately drawn to the remarkable glass louvres that make up the building's second skin. Mobile, they position themselves perpendicularly to the sun's rays to literally temper them. What is their role? To allow the light to penetrate while protecting the building's occupants from excessive heat. The louvres were specially designed for this project by the architect Philippe Samyn and developed by our R&D Centre. In the summer, they remain open at night to allow the heat accumulated during the day to evacuate. Conversely, in the winter they close to keep the heat inside.
A NEARLY NEUTRAL ENERGY BALANCE
Combined with the use of louvres, geothermal energy and the choice of the building's orientation, the coatings applied to the glass guarantee the occupants' comfort throughout the year and allow us to reduce heating and cooling to a minimum. Requirements for artificial lighting are greatly reduced as a result of ingeniously engineered plans to ensure that each workstation is located a maximum of three meters from a window. "Almost 900 solar panels on the roof help generate 200,000 kWh annually. This allows AGC to almost totally counterbalance our energy needs for lighting and climate control".
MATERIALS THAT RESPECT EMPLOYEE HEALTH
"The choice of materials is essential for safeguarding the health and well-being of our people. You may be unaware of the fact, but the concentration of pollutants can be up to ten times higher inside a building compared with outside", remarks E. Hazard. Therefore, AGC opted for a maximum of natural materials (such as oak) or those certified Cradle to Cradle (C2C), a label that assesses the sustainable nature of products throughout their life cycle and guarantees the quality of their composition.
AWARDED INTERNATIONAL CERTIFICATION
During its design phase, the headquarters obtained the excellent level for BREEAM certification (European certification attesting to a building's environmental performance). This certification takes, among other things, into account luminosity, exterior views, glare management, the composition of the materials as well as acoustic performance. "
With this building, which has a total of 13,000 m2 of glass, we are proving that glass is a vital element when designing a nearly zero-energy building!