Increasingly stringent energy efficiency standards for buildings call for smart solutions that deliver innovation in terms of sustainability, technology and design.
Featuring 6,500 m² of office space across 11 floors, this major renovation project focuses on sustainability as well as thermal and acoustic insulation – all with a view to offering occupants a bright, inspirational and high-quality workplace.
The Belnine project, located on Rue Belliard in Brussels' European Quarter, is a testimony to the fruitful collaboration between FINEO by AGC and Schüco International.
"With the Belnine project, FINEO is breaking new ground. We had previously concentrated on offering our product as a solution for use in the renovation and restoration of historic buildings, but FINEO is also an attractive option for new, high energy performance buildings. The Belnine project perfectly illustrates this challenge – and FINEO really delivered.
For Belnine, we selected a hybrid product combining FINEO glass with conventional double glazing. This solution is much thinner and lighter than triple glazing, while delivering better thermal performance and acoustic insulation. It also offers many benefits in terms of recyclability and the environment," explains Serge Martin, CEO of FINEO.
Since it is so thin and delivers such extraordinary insulation performance along with an extremely low environmental impact, FINEO is undoubtedly the future of glazing.
"Until now, meeting the technical and energy requirements of buildings meant choosing thicker materials: thicker insulation, double glazing, then triple glazing, and so on. But now we're moving in the opposite direction and thinning down. This was a challenge for us because Rue Belliard is such an iconic location in Brussels. So as we worked on a design of this building, we sought to develop a skin that would not only give occupants a feeling of openness to the outside world, but would also protect them from the impact of noise pollution. That's what FINEO is all about: creating a barrier to protect offices while at the same time opening them up to the surrounding city."
“Increasingly stringent energy efficiency standards for buildings call for smart solutions that deliver innovation in terms of sustainability, technology and design. Together with AGC, we believe we've created a complete solution that offers our glassmakers many benefits, the main one being that we need less time and space on-site. Each facade element is prefabricated at our plant and delivered to the project site when it is needed. Naturally, the process of incorporating FINEO into our design was subject to theoretical verifications and practical in-house inspections at our technology centres.”
Jurgen Van Geel, Sales Manager at Groven concludes: “With FINEO, we, as facade builders, have a very useful design concept that we can leverage in order to prepare for energy-efficient new builds, especially in the non-residential segment."
This strategic partnership and majestic project unquestionably pave the way for innovative solutions focusing on sustainability, technology and design.