Belgian pavilion is ‘building of the future’

Expo 2020 runs until 31 March in Dubai. One year later than planned, the world exhibition has become a highly topical event: it brings people together from all over the world. On a site covering 438 hectares, 192 countries and numerous institutions will take part in the expo. BESIX has been active in the region since the 1960s. Belgium’s largest construction group carried out a lot of infrastructure work for Expo 2020, as well as building two pavilions: the Belgian one and the French one. Through the Belgian pavilion, 94 Belgian companies are present at the World Expo.

Jan Van Steirteghem, general manager for Europe at Besix

Circular Pavilion

Architect Vincent Callebaut drew a striking design for the Belgian pavilion. “The construction rests on two pillars,” says Jan Van Steirteghem, general manager for Europe at BESIX. “The façade is made of solid wood. Visitors can walk under the building, where there is an agora providing shade.” Above all, it is a ‘green’ building. This is no coincidence as sustainability is one of the main themes of Expo 2020. The Belgian program for its pavilion also plays into this. It has 2050 as its theme: the year when the European Union will become carbon neutral.

Jan Van Steirteghem, general manager for Europe at BESIX

Game Outlines Energy Transition

“The pavilion is conceived as a circular project,” says Jan Van Steirteghem. “It is completely reusable. We can dismantle it and rebuild it at a new location.” In addition, it is an energy-neutral building, in which renewable energy and smart water usage are key. In the pavilion, visitors find out more about Belgian know-how in the field of energy transition via a game. “It is among the best in the world,” said Van Steirteghem. “The game shows how energy production will be decentralized in the future.”

The game was developed by Elia, the operator of the Belgian high-voltage grid, BESIX and Proximus. Again, this is no coincidence, as a flexible electricity grid, sustainable buildings and IoT solutions are the cornerstones of the energy transition.

Smart Applications

In order to help shape the energy transition, BESIX and Proximus decided to jointly invest in aug.e, a startup that controls smart applications based on data coming from a building. “BESIX’s new headquarters in the Netherlands, in particular, served as a test case,” said Jan Van Steirteghem. “We work with all kinds of new techniques and technology: ranging from geothermal energy and a battery to all kinds of sensors.

Using machine learning, aug.e’s applications learn how the building works, allowing it, among other things, to predict energy demand and optimize energy consumption: both for the amount of energy and its cost, by buying energy at the right time but also by selling it. These apps allow us to integrate more renewable energy into the grid. Thus ensuring that users can live and work comfortably and efficiently while minimizing energy consumption and matching it to the supply of renewable energy.”