VITO, the leading Flemish organisation for research and innovative solutions on sustainable development, has laid the foundation stone of its new lab building 'Earth'. The state-of-the-art lab infrastructure is part of the larger master plan for the VITO Sustainability Park in Mol. The new building will house numerous flexible labs and pilot installations, which will ensure the development of the next generation of sustainable technologies for domestic and foreign 'factories of tomorrow'. The project is part of a larger master plan developed and realised by the temporary partnership Architektenburo Jef Van Oevelen / SVR-ARCHITECTS (TM JVO/SVR).
With a team of about 1,200 employees and a turnover of EUR 237 million in 2022, VITO is a major player in sustainability research in Flanders, Europe and far beyond. The new infrastructure will not only provide a more efficient working environment. The building itself will house numerous labs and demo rooms, where feedstock technologies of the future will be developed and scaled up into market-ready innovations. Two already existing examples are the LignoValue Pilot (first and only pilot line in Europe to extract biomolecules from grass and wood waste instead of petroleum) and Characterise to Sort (inline characterisation and valuation of waste using AI).
VITO SUSTAINABILITY PARK
The Earth building is the next step, after the Balmatt plant and a first demo hall for circular materials research, to gradually group VITO's infrastructure in the VITO Sustainability Park. In this way, VITO will achieve even more cooperation and synergy. Not only within the VITO teams, but also for external researchers and for companies that want to join forces to tackle sustainability challenges. And thus strengthen the competitive position of Flanders within Europe, and Europe in the world.
"Flanders is at the top in terms of research and innovation in Europe. VITO is an important player in this, and the construction of the new 'Earth' building will enable it to fulfil this role even more fully. The new infrastructure gives room to cluster different research projects to increase the possibilities for innovation."
JO BROUNS, FLEMISH MINISTER FOR ECONOMY, INNOVATION, WORK, SOCIAL ECONOMY AND AGRICULTURE
The building will serve as a sustainability showcase, applying innovative materials and energy efficiency principles, and will be commissioned in mid-2025. It will not only improve research capacity, but will also be an important next step in remediating and transforming a former polluted site into a sustainable business location.
Key mentions:
An Vervoort of SVR-Architects put her "experience, skill and creativity" into the design of these buildings.
Whereas at SVR-Architects the emphasis is always on futureproof and sustainable building, designing such Research Lab is another challenge.
The enormous quality of the design is clearly reflected in the detailing, choice of materials, etc.
A beautiful result to which we gladly contribute our bit (or wood).
With general contractor 'Van Roey NV' and assembly partner 'Sterq', every risk was avoided.
After all, these local partners are known for their knowledge and delivery of quality.
Houthandel Paulussen supplied the materials for this project. We do not realize projects ourselves, but we can refer you to the right professional or specialist.
