GLASS FOR FACADE 2022

GLASS FOR FAÇADE - EDITION 2022 - 77 76 - GLASS FOR FAÇADE - EDITION 2022 Vaccinopolis, the new vaccine research centre for the University of Antwerp and the Université Libre de Bruxelles, is playing a key role in the fight against current and future diseases. Research there is based on the CHIM principle, «Controlled Human Infection Model», i.e., vaccine testing on the basis of clinical trials. The research centre opened in March 2022 and, at 6,200 m 2 , is the largest of its kind in the European Union. Comparable CHIM studies have only previously been possible in the USA and Great Britain. The new building on Antwerp’s Drie Eiken campus was constructed in a record time of 14 months. It is a compact, elongated structure with a metallic façade whose reflective properties enable a «merging» with the surroundings. The building’s plinth is largely open with an embedded entrance set slightly back from the outer plane of the façade. A light-filled staircase leads to the administration and laboratory areas on the first floor, to patient rooms on the second floor and up to a residential floor and a roof terrace. The single-storey narrow windows, window bands and a two- storey atrium façade using both COOL-LITE® XTREME and COOL-LITE® SKN 183 solar control coatings from Saint-Gobain Glass provide interiors that are bright and sun-protected as well as giving extended views. The south-facing window band around the patients’ rooms projects diagonally outwards from the façade plane. By using highly efficient solar control glass, optimal protection is provided against excessive solar heat gain, while also ensuring generous amounts of daylight. In addition to the glass products for the façade, other Saint-Gobain products have been successfully specified in this project: 25,000 m² of plasterboard complete systems from Gyproc® were delivered for the partition walls, liners and ceilings of the laboratories, offices, and rooms, while Weber supplied its flooring solution Weberfloor®. HEALTH CARE VACCINOPOLIS CENTER VACCINE RESEARCH IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CURRENT AND FUTURE DISEASES Location Drie Eikenstraat 663, 2650 Edegem, BE Architect Proof of the sum, Amsterdam, NL Glass processor IGP and Polypane Glasindustrie NV Façade maker Limeparts Drooghmans Photos ©Marcel van der Burg