Brucity
Where the widely known Parking 58 used to be, today you will find the brand new Brucity. The old car park was demolished and replaced by four floors of underground parking and ten floors of offices and meeting rooms. Glass facades, a luminous atrium and green gardens on the roof: Brucity is a sustainable architectural gem in the middle of the city. And it was made fireproof by Altebra Waregem.
With impressive installations, Altebra Waregem helps ensure that City of Brussels employees can do their work safely. The SHE installation, fire-resistant glazing and overpressure systems ensure that fire has as little chance as possible to spread.
Architecture and safety go hand in hand
"We started on this project in the car park. There we installed a smoke and heat extraction system (SHE)," explains Jan Lobbestael, Project Engineer at Altebra Waregem. "To increase visibility and the sense of security, no full walls were built in the car park. We replaced these with fire-resistant glass. This stops smoke for 60 minutes and can withstand high temperatures. The very lowest floor also houses the city's archives. It goes without saying that fire safety is essential there too. This was fireproofed by a Altebra Waregem fire resistant door EI1 60.
"Also in the superstructure you will find a SHE system from Altebra Waregem," Jan continues. "The atrium is actually a tube in the middle of the building that runs up to the top. At the very top there is a ring of fans that extract the smoke through the glass roof. These are big fans of 1m20 to 1m50 in diameter, so quite impressive to see." Next to it are two rectangular atriums, each equipped with two fans, one metre in diameter.
Installation and automation on point
For fire safety, it is very important that all components are well coordinated. "For example, the overpressure system in the stairwells is activated automatically when a fire is detected. Such an installation was provided in all four stairwells. All doors are self-closing, so the stairwell is always closed. If a fire breaks out on a lower floor and someone there opens the door to the stairwell, the smoke is pushed back by the overpressure. The smoke can therefore not enter the stairwell and spread. Thanks to the secure wiring and programming, we can ensure that all necessary systems are triggered."
