In the heart of Brussels' European quarter, 300,000 m² of office space will be transformed into a green neighbourhood with shops, offices and different types of housing, promised the new design team behind the project.
Plusoffice Architects has been appointed to redevelop 21 buildings around Rue de la Loi that were formerly used by the European Commission. According to reports from April, Belgium has made a €1 billion offer to buy this real estate from the EU and prevent bigger office buildings from taking over the area.
"We’re delighted to enter a new phase of what will become a pioneering project transforming the European district in Brussels into a sustainable, future-proof, and vibrant neighbourhood," said Frédéric Van der Planken, the CEO of Whitewood, the managing company of the Cityforward property fund.
Cityforward, which is owned by the Belgian government and by the insurance company Ethias, will handle the redevelopment work. The newly appointed design team plans to redevelop the area into a sustainable city district that reconciles private and public interests, according to a press release.
The redesign would free up more space for housing units and green space in the office-dominated area, as well as improving mobility. Currently, some 1,000 people live in the Leopold Quarter.
View of the buildings set for redevelopment. Credit: Cityforward
Cityforward plans to allocate "around 30% of the redevelopment to uses other than offices, such as housing and amenities."
The EU Commission announced back in 2021 that it would leave half of its Brussels offices by 2030, due to high rates of remote work among staff and the need to make its offices greener. The European Green Deal mandates a 55% reduction of CO2 emissions, but the Commission itself still has many outdated buildings.
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Many of the offices that the European Commission is scrapping have a high carbon footprint, and the redevelopment plan intends to renovate the buildings in order to lower energy consumption and reduce emissions.
For the project, Plusoffice Architects will partner with RE-ST and Osmos Network, two expert offices for sustainable development.
The design team is expected to unveil its proposal in March 2024. Brussels authorities announced the revamp of the European Quarter last year, promising to develop a more liveable, greener, integrated community in the EU bubble, within the next 10 to 20 years.
