To acknowledge and honour the heritage value of the residences, innovation extended well beyond the building itself. The project pioneered new approaches to design, procurement and collaboration, engaging four multidisciplinary teams of architects, engineers, contractors and manufacturers in a competitive yet collaborative learning process.
What emerged was much more than a renovation project. A student residence from the 1970s became, all at once, a research platform, a full-scale design testbed, a showcase for circular construction, and an award-winning design. The project demonstrated that energy performance, affordability, sustainability and heritage conservation need not compete with one another, but can reinforce each other when approached through a life-cycle perspective.
The WVDM Living Lab investigates sustainable renovation strategies for post-war heritage buildings as in the whole Brussels Capital Region, as was therefore funded through the Innoviris Living Labs Test-It programme, with support from the European Regional Development Fund and the Brussels-Capital Region. The project rand from 2017 to 2021, with the construction delivered in 2023.
VUB researchers, infrastructure services, architects, engineers, sustainability experts, construction companies and regional innovation actors partnered-up, including MAKER architecten, Origin, VK, VITO and Beneens for the final realisation.