Intro
The Belle-Ile shopping centre expands with a new gallery for 22 shops. The eye-catcher is a promenade with a remarkable glass roof structure. VK optimized the design of this fifth facade through parametric design and integrated engineering of facade, fire safety, stability and M&E. The high performance prefabricated solution also meant a significant saving, while respecting the architectural design.
- Client(s)
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- Wereldhave
- Architects
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- Ateliers du Sart Tilman
- Stats
- 22 shops
- 30600 m²
Story
An integrated engineering approach, applying parametric design, resulted in an important optimisation of the design.

Belle-Île Shopping Center in Liège city serves 576,000 people in a 20 minute radius. Opened in 1995, it welcomed 3.7 million visitors in 2015. Wereldhave, developer and manager of the shopping center, wants to refurbish and extend the commercial complex.
The extension entails 22 new retail units, making for 121 retail units in total on 42,000 sqm. The extension, amongst others, enables cafés and restaurants to dispose of terraces.
The eye-catcher is a covered mall of 2,600 sqm. The initial design of the promenade was put under scrutinous research by VK's engineers. An integrated engineering approach, applying parametric design, resulted in an important optimisation of the design. Furthermore, a feasibility analysis for the covered mall showed impressive cost-savings. VK's integrated engineering provided a high-performance, cost-effective solution without having to sacrifice the architectural quality.
- VK Architects & Engineers
- Jaspers-Eyers Architects
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