Multidisciplinary expert teams offer long-lasting solutions
The best way to make sure our projects meet the criteria of (y)our sustainability ambitions, is by being a full lifecycle partner. We’re by your side every step of the way: from designing to building and monitoring afterwards. Our multidisciplinary teams offer versatile expertise and solutions to watch over your sustainability goals throughout every phase.
Yes, we’re committed to being your partner all along the way.
Here's whyFull life cycle partnership
Design Team
Everything starts with a dream, an ambition. In the planning phase of your project, we invite our sustainability experts to the designing table to assess the kind of impact your ambition will have throughout its lifecycle. Our multidisciplinary design team delivers a computational conceptual design which is the guideline to further build upon for the technical team.
Technical Team
The pre-set sustainability goals from the design phase are interwoven in the entire technical development of your project. Conceptual ambitions are turned into realisable goals. Again, collaboration between our experts is key here. Our BIM Manager keeps oversight while building and until your sustainable project is put into use.
Success coach
We stay committed, even after delivery and during the operational phase of your project. A digital twin helps monitoring, evaluating and tracking the performance of all assets to make sure the initial ambitions are still being met. The results of that scan in return enables us to learn and improve for your next project.
A value-added project anticipates future challenges such as reduction of carbon footprint, multi-purpose use and creation of a healthy environment.
Tim Ost
design principal sustainable design, VK architects+engineers
Our expert teams
Noise pollution, speech privacy, audibility, reverberations... only a few acoustical factors determining our daily comfort. Intelligent acoustical engineering reduces stress, and is therefore an investment in people’s wellbeing. The propagation of sound however, makes acoustics a difficult discipline, in terms of both sound insulation and room acoustics. That's why acoustics need a holistic approach by specialists, from the conceptual phase up to completion. VK has extensive expertise in building acoustics, environmental noise, room acoustics, industrial noise and vibrations, etc. Our engineers perform acoustical 3D simulations,noise maps and acoustic measurements. All projects are developed in close multidisciplinary cooperation with the structural and M&E engineering departments. Moreover, our engineers are renowned experts who interact with the academic world and research centres. This allows them, together with the experience on challenging projects, to apply the knowledge and insight on new developments, as wood or CLT construction or the rise in use of heating pumps, into the acoustical design.
Architecture is VK’s way to give shape and identity to your buildings, its surroundings and social interactions. Our work strives to be human, real, vital, and tactile. Countless challenges and opportunities arise during a project. Master planning and programming provide direction, and enable concepts and solutions. Architecture in its turn, allows our designers to focus on the physical spaces were we heal and work in. Whether you have a project in healthcare or industry, VK’s architects will design your project in co-creation with our engineers on efficiency, functionality, energy and sustainability, logistics intelligence, security, stability etc. Together with our interior architects they’ll come up with people centric designs that meet your usability, comfort and wellbeing needs. That integral approach enables smart design and allows optimisation of the entire life cycle cost, as a contribution to a wider socially and economically sustainable environment.
Digital engineering is so much more than 3D modelling, BIM services and VR simulation. It is your head start from the tender phase onwards. It is the art of modelling, integrating and optimising design data thanks to digital competencies. It is the evolution from computer-aided to computer-controlled design of infrastructure. A digital engineer is therefore a programmer as well as an engineer. The design logic is explicitly coded in workflows and algorithms. The advantage is that the design process is traceable and repeatable, significantly improving both quality and productivity. We control our activities with a risk-based approach, in accordance with the principles of Systems Engineering. We manage the results centrally throughout the life cycle of the project. As such, we reduce information loss and failure costs.
The building envelope is the layer where all functions and requirements of a building come together, actuating on all dynamic parameters of the exterior and the interior. Facade Engineering optimises all these functions and requirements by bridging across many disciplines, like Architecture, Acoustical & Fire Safety Engineering etc. Our Facade Engineers focus on the thermal performance of a facade, the environmental efficiency and the use of sustainable materials. Thanks to VK’s experience with alternative design solutions, you’ll have a facade design that works for the lifetime of the building.
Our fire safety engineers commit to the protection of people, structures and goods from the destructive consequences of smoke and fire. Their experience extends over projects in every market and is applied on new construction projects, renovations, and extensions. They combine broad academic expertise with dynamic simulations to assess the risks and research the impact of fire, smoke, and heat on spaces and structures, evaluate evacuation scenarios… As the fire safety engineer has valuable input to offer for the design team, he or she is involved from the earliest design stage onwards, to prevent costly and time-consuming re-designing or re-engineering.
Technical installations have a major impact on the performance and functionality of a building and are therefore meticulously designed and monitored by our M&E engineers. They intensively consult with our sustainability experts during the design, construction and operational phase. Their advice is based on dynamic calculation software and is specifically adjusted to the type of market addressed. VK also has unique expertise in the design of progressive technical concepts for Smart Buildings. Day by day we help our clients to chart a sustainable path forward on the road to a rapid decarbonization.
The quality of life and experience in our surroundings begins with a well-functioning, safe and sustainable public space. It's our ambition to create both technical and functional sustainability as well as timeless landscapes and architecture. Landscape architects, urban planners and engineers work together in a complementary team to supervise the vision and concept of the project for its entire duration. All aspects of landscaping, traffic engineering and mobility policy, urban planning, water management, and civil engineering etc. are dealt with in an integrated manner. Our designers and engineers work out the technical details of the designs with the latest software. Visualisations, 3D ground modelling, 3D road design, hydraulics and BIM are used to meet your expectations.
VK’s structural engineers are the ones that hold the ideas of our architects and services engineers together. Whether you’re starting from scratch or have a renovation project, they make your dreams come true. Without ever letting go of sustainability and costs. Aside from traditional building methods with steel and concrete, VK specialises in advanced techniques like wood structures, post-tensioning, carbon fibres, concrete-steel, jointless construction and parametric design. Projects are designed to resist wind, snow loads, earthquakes and temperature changes and we developed specific programs for particular issues, like fire resistance, foundation resistance and settlements. Our engineers also use calculation software to dynamically analyse oscillation due to wind turbulences or floor vibration due to machinery or human activity.
Sustainability goes beyond energy efficiency. It runs through every aspect of a design. At VK, we strive for an integrated approach of each project, based on less energy, more comfort, better usability and suitable for every stage of a building's life-cycle. We map the ecological aspects such as energy, materials, transport and water, but also the economic and social ones: profitability, lifespan, safety, comfort and integration into the environment. To succeed in our ambitions, we work with every department and across all disciplines.
Offering these solutions
Master plans take position between projects and broader spatial policy plans, which allows them to combine important characteristics of the higher level (structural plans, mobility plans etc.) and the lower one (projects and local land-use plans). We support boards and organisations in long-term development projects by designing a spatial framework for their future manifestations. We set a planning horizon and aim to understand your targets and strategic choices in order to arrive at a shared, guiding vision for more sustainable and future-oriented results. Based on the possibilities on site, our urban planners and architects then develop a global, long-term vision for a campus or building.
Size, volumetry, functionality and the perspective of city council all impact the sustainability strategy of a project. Those factors are put into perspective during the planning phase and in the conceptual design. At that point, the guidelines are written for our sustainability strategies. Energy experts conduct research on the feasibility of energy and carbon neutrality. Our Water experts work up to water neutrality, our Material experts aim for low impact and carbon neutrality in their field, and our Wellbeing experts take the usability for the end-user into account. The feasibility of all these factors is grouped according to compatibility, budget and priority, which results in 3 levels of ambitions and related certification (Breeam, Well, Gro and others).
When designing sustainably, we follow the philosophy of a number of assessment systems (LEED, BREEAM, HQE, GRO, WELL, ILFI). If so desired by the customer, we even aim for official certification, which reduces operational costs and improves the working and living conditions. These rating systems assess all life cycle phases of a construction and allow for the realisation of minimal impact in several domains: management, health and wellbeing, energy, water, materials, waste, ecology... Whether new construction, renovation or existing buildings, we assist the design team to reach the customer’s ecological objectives. In terms of costs and time efficiency, it is crucial that all input is given during the designing phase.
A future proof building is as energy efficient as possible. To attain a high energy performance, we start by saving energy through passive and low-tech measures. To optimise, we aim for energy recovery through storage and exchange, and for the integration of renewables. A lifecycle analysis investigates different combinations of building physics applications – like insulation, airtightness, glazing, sun protection – and MEP systems like the type of ventilation, lighting control, heat and cold generation, free cooling… The analysis takes into account different outputs: investment (CAPEX), exploitation (OPEX), net present value (NPV), total cost of ownership (TCO), energy performance and carbon emissions.
Building simulation is a way to test how elements of building design will perform under real-world conditions. This is done using a mathematical model that re-creates conditions in a virtual environment. These computer-based simulations enable architects and engineers to evaluate the performance of their designs. It allows users to understand the interrelation between design and performance parameters, to identify potential problem areas, and so implement and test appropriate design modifications.
VR simulation creates a non-existing situation in the virtual world. This virtual protype allows us to verify whether a design meets the usability standards and quality demands. Necessary modifications are made in the digital model instead of the physical construction, which avoids the environmental impact made by having to set right design errors or desired modifications arising from progressive insights through use.
An elaborated insulation strategy and detailed building physics are crucial in building sustainable projects with high comfort and energy ambitions. We aim to reduce heat loss to optimise energy use and thermal comfort during winter. But we also look to exclude (hygrothermal) condensation risks (internal and at the surface) and ensure a healthy fluid balance, thermal comfort and overall health. When renovating as well, the fluid balance and possible hygrothermal behaviour of present components need to be taken into account so they don’t deteriorate through changed detailing. Our specialists aim for a holistic approach of the outer shell and perform thorough building physics analysis to optimise building details, guarantee sustainability and avoid moisture related damage and comfort nuisance.
The energy and water parameters assumed during the design and constructions phase, may deviate in reality. Different occupancy rates and comfort standards often lead to results that are inconsistent with the proposed sustainability ambitions. Through monitoring of energy and water consumption, we get a more precise image of how a building is being used. Together with the client and facility services, we track, improve and adjust the ambitions with periodical analysis and reporting. Here, the ‘Smart building’ principle really comes into its own. We use intelligent and integrated systems and extensive connectivity to design more efficient, healthy and productive buildings.
A Digital Twin is a digital copy of an existing object created in the design and construction phase as a 3D model during the BIM process. Traditionally, this model becomes obsolete once the building is in use. A waste of time and knowledge, unless you keep using the model and adding data to it after the completion and during the lifecycle of a building. At that point the Digital Twin becomes an instrument for learning, developing, testing and training. It provides us with knowledge to build more sustainable environments of higher quality and efficiency.
Sustainability certification upon commissioning is a first step in the sustainability assessment. But sustainability is an ongoing process, a story of continuous monitoring and optimisation. More and more certifiers (BREEAM, WELL, ILFI) include this philosophy in their certification procedure, stipulating a new moment of verification every (three) year(s). The initial sustainability score has to be re-established at that point. Our assessors and professionals accredited for BREEAM, WELL and ILFI will guide you through these moments of verification.
Quality monitoring of a building in use starts with managing the comfort parameters in the field. How those parameters are being conceived by the users of the building, is another important aspect. To gain insights in their perception, a survey is quintessential. VK helps you set up a questionnaire and analyses the results. The output is the basis for our expert report with optimisation advice for the building manager and maintenance firm to work with.
A project can undergo several small or big reconversions throughout its occupancy. It is vital to have a clear image of the as-built situation of a building and of the way it has been conceptualised. Ideally, a Digital Twin provides a model to create simulations of the renovations, anticipating on materials flow, energy optimisations etc, in compliance with the scale of the reconversion. This report allows for an informed decision before even starting the renovation.