A former bank headquarters transformed into a multifunctional school campus
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In Brussels, the former Beobank headquarters is transforming into a school campus and community centre. Cegelec HVAC is providing innovative and sustainable HVAC solutions, offering comfort, energy performance and timely installation.
©B2Ai – beelden Nanopixel
The former Beobank headquarters in the Ixelles municipality of Brussels is learning to live a second life. With over 7,000 sq. metres of outdoor space and excellent accessibility, the building is to be transformed into a large multifunctional learning campus. From September 2026, it will accommodate two secondary schools with a total of 1,150 students.
GO! Atheneum Etterbeek will offer an ASO (general education) programme for 700 students, while the nonprofit KatOBA’s Institut Imelda will develop TSO and BSO (technical and professional education) courses for 450 students.
Across its 14,165 sq. metres, the infrastructure will feature just under2,000 sq. metres dedicated to sport, which will also be available to local clubs outside school hours. The campus will also include a community centre, De Maalbeek, with a 375 sq. metre theatre and several multipurpose halls.
At the heart of energy performance with Cegelec HVAC
BAM Interbuild is carrying out the work for this renovation project led by Befimmo for VGC (the Flemish community commission). It is based on a circular economy approach, retaining and repurposing the existing structure.
Cegelec HVAC is playing a key role in the technical success of the project, with responsibility for execution studies, installation, commissioning and tuning for the entire HVAC system.
“This project perfectly illustrates how to combine energy efficiency, user comfort and intelligent reuse of the existing building fabric.”
“The campus will be heated entirely by renewable energies via two air-to-water heat pumps with combined power of 522 kW,” explains Sebastiaan Smits, Project Manager at Cegelec HVAC Commercial North (VINCI Energies Building Solutions). “One of these heat pumps will also provide cooling to the air-handling units to ensure perfect comfort all year round.”
Furthermore, a water-to-water heat pump of 129 kW will produce domestic hot water for the sport complex.
Ventilation is provided by five air-handling units creating total airflow of 95,120 cubic metres an hour and equipped with high-performance filters, a thermal wheel for recovering heat and moisture, and heating and cooling coils. “Rooms with variable occupancy will have VAV valves, which can adjust depending on CO2 rates to optimise air quality and energy consumption,” says Sebastiaan Smits.
The Building Management System will be provided by an ABB Cylon system, the engineering and programming for which will be handled in-house by Cegelec.
A tight schedule and ambitious technical choices
“We were appointed in April 2025 and immediately started the execution study. Work on the site will begin in October,” says Sebastiaan Smits.
The timetable remains one of the main challenges: everything needs to be completed by August 2026 to allow the school to open in September. The technical installations will be visible in the classrooms and so require particular care in their design and execution.
In addition to technical performance, the project has a strong environmental aspect, with a circular renovation preserving the existing structure, a building that uses no fossil fuels for HVAC (there is gas for the labs classrooms), and exterior solar reflectors to reduce overheating, all complemented by top-down cooling from the air-handling units.
For Sebastiaan Smits, “This is a project that perfectly illustrates how to combine energy efficiency, user comfort and intelligent reuse of the existing building fabric.”
Project on behalf of Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie (VGC), GO! Scholengroep Brussel, Scholengroep KatOBA en het gemeenschapscentrum De Maalbeek
Developer: Befimmo
Architect + engineering: B2Ai
Contractor: BAM Interbuild
11/14/2025
