Founded in 1945, the National Theatre was designed to francophone culture. After wandering around through different locations in Brussels, in 1994, the French Community opted for a building in the centre. In 1999 the building was turned into a temple of contemporary culture. VK provided building services engineering for the designs.

The theatre building has two halls with 800 and 250 seats, rehearsal rooms, a public foyer, boxes, offices and storage spaces. Due to the varied sizes of the various rooms, climate control was quite a challenge. In the halls, air enters from under the seats and extracted via the roof. The ventilation systems are also equipped with an emergency power generator. In a public building, fire safety and smoke removal are also key concerns. Risk areas such as storage areas and the stage tower are equipped with sprinklers. The smoke extraction in the main hall takes place by pumping air in via the ground floor and extracting it via the roof. The smaller hall has a mechanical ventilation system.

Special attention was devoted to the distribution network used for hot water with a view to preventing the risk of legionella contamination.

The building is further equipped with a panorama lift for the public, two service lifts and a lift for stage scenery weighing up to 8,800 kg. This was complemented by lighting sets (functional, decorative and for safety purposes), warning/alarm devices, fire detectors, access control, anti-intruder control, door intercom, TV distribution and cabling for telephone and data traffic.