What is it about?
The City of Brussels is planning to extend the Pagodes Athenaeum on the site of the former Karel Buls Athenaeum, which moved to the new school complex on Avenue Mutsaard in January 2024. This extension, covering around 4,000 m², will include classrooms, a sports hall and outdoor facilities, thereby increasing the capacity of the city's French-language schools and making it possible to accommodate up to 1,250 pupils.
The project is being developed as follows:
- On the ground floor, the group rooms are located in opposite corners of the extension, partly extending the layout of the existing building and creating areas dedicated to group activities.
- On the first floor, a courtyard slightly offset from the existing courtyard connects to the Pagodes Athenaeum building, both in the plan and cross-section.
- Various outdoor spaces are created, including a courtyard, an indoor garden, a sports field, a covered courtyard, an orchard, a covered garden and a reed-filled pond.
The layout retains a passageway at the end of the site, known as Avenue de la Sariette, linking Rue de Beyseghem to Avenue de Versailles and bordering the school orchard. As this passageway is private, the Athenaeum will tailor its use according to its surveillance capabilities.
The school will be fully integrated into the neighbourhood. The sports hall and refectory, accessible from the public space and used by the school during school hours, will be available to local residents and associations outside school opening hours.
Like all new buildings in the city, the site will be 100% accessible to people with reduced mobility (PRM). The project encourages environmentally-friendly transport methods, with good connections to the surrounding pavements and cycle paths, 80 cycle parking spaces and charging points for electric bikes.
Everything has been designed with sustainable development in mind: the site will be 'clean' and water-efficient. Particular attention is paid to waste management, and the choice of materials and structures takes account of the carbon footprint. Some of the materials recovered during demolition will be recycled and/or repurposed. Rainwater harvesting and the use of solar panels are also planned.
Works began in early 2024.
© ALTER - Atelier d'Architecture & d'Ingénierie - Bruxelles
What purpose?
This project meets the following ambitions and objectives:
- Rationalising the management and use of municipal sites by applying the concept of chrono-urbanism
- Giving priority to reconcentrating the city's facilities and services within multi-purpose neighbourhood facilities hubs
- Addressing a lack of public facilities
- Implementing a policy of activating roofs to prevent overheating in municipal public buildings
- Disconnecting as many large-scale sites as possible from the sewerage system and increasing infiltration/storage/recovery and soil permeability systems
- Continuing to develop the city of Brussels' solar park
- Rallying the construction sector to reuse materials
- Boosting the supply of facilities and services around the public transport network and a network combining cycle and pedestrian mobility, while preserving the existing landscape and biological attributes of Neder-Over-Heembeek
- Enhancing and complementing the network of municipal paths and lanes
- Speeding up the development of a cycle network and providing appropriate bike parking facilities
- Rallying and equipping municipal properties with urban agriculture facilities (vegetable gardens/orchards/chicken coops)
© ALTER - Atelier d'Architecture & d'Ingénierie - Bruxelles
© ALTER - Atelier d'Architecture & d'Ingénierie - Bruxelles
© ALTER - Atelier d'Architecture & d'Ingénierie - Bruxelles
