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Sustainable housing

Limiting a building’s environmental impact starts at the design stage. Our architects and engineers will, hence, always favor sustainable solutions when possible. Energy monitoring systems are being installed in our portfolio’s buildings to measure and monitor the consumption of electricity and water in our properties.

We increasingly insert a life cycle assessment in the due diligence procedure for new projects and we aim at introducing a life cycle assessment for each new project. This will enable us to further reduce our environmental footprint.

Some properties have been developed re-using materials from the former standing building. As an example, discover the case study of the Martha Flora Rotterdam care residence that was constructed on an old church site.

Case studies

Learn more about Aedifica’s sustainable housing projects in the following cases studies.

  • Our service community concept demonstrates our commitment to the development of innovative and sustainable residential care concepts that meet the evolving expectations of our society and the current challenges in the care sector.

    Jussi Karjula, CEO Hoivatilat

    Aedifica’s mission is to develop sustainable and innovative residential care concepts that meet its users’ needs and improve their quality of life. In Finland, the Hoivatilat team developed the ‘service community’ concept, which offers the ideal environment to combine multiple types of care and services for both the building’s users and the community at large on a single campus. While service communities were recently completed in Espoo and Tuusula, and another new campus will be delivered in Lohja in summer 2021, the very first service community was opened in Lahti in 2015. The Lahti service community offers housing and care to different age groups, accommodating 30 elderly persons and welcoming up to 80 children on a daily basis. Both groups have their own dedicated buildings that are connected by a common inner courtyard. Elderly care is provided by Attendo, day care for children by Pilke. The campus was specifically designed to enrich their lives by creating several opportunities for them to meet each other and share experiences.

    In 2015, lifecycle thinking and this kind of collaboration between two operators was a relatively new concept. I am pleased to see that our initiative has gained interest and is being implemented in other places as well.

    Anne Manninen, Attendo

    Seniors and children can meet each other on the common courtyard or during joint activities. The day-care centre focuses on music and organises performances in the care home on a weekly basis. The children frequently visit the seniors, so that they can sing and play together. These activities are often related to an upcoming holiday or another theme. This community model benefits both age groups. It teaches the children tolerance for the elderly and shows them that old people are valuable and that it is pleasant to interact with them. The residents, meanwhile, look forward to the children’s visits and enjoy playing with them or watching them play. It refreshes their mind, even when they lack the energy to participate themselves. The service community has been operated by Attendo (elderly care) and Pilke (day care) since 2015. Both companies received an award for their innovative collaboration.

    The campus allows us to organise common activities that bring joy and warmth to both the children and the seniors. We hope that when the pandemic subsides, we will be able to hold joint events again soon.

    Maisa Jokinen, Pilke

  • Villa Casimir (or ‘Huize Ernst Casimir’) in Roermond (Netherlands) is a former villa and ‘rijksmonument’ (a national heritage site) built in 1908 that was redeveloped into a futureproof care residence, while fully preserving the cultural-historical value of the building. In October 2020, after little more than a year of renovation works, the villa opened its doors again for 18 elderly people requiring continuous care.

    At the start of the redevelopment, the villa had a G-rated EPC (Energy Performance Certificate), which meant that the building’s energy consumption was very inefficient. Following Aedifica’s redevelopment investments, Villa Casimir received an A rating, indicating the building’s consumption is ‘most efficient’. The building and its installations are now futureproof, fit for the current generation and the next, contributing to the continued improvement of the sustainability of our real estate portfolio.

    • We restored the villa’s unique characteristic elements to their former glory: high windows, wooden beams, French doors and stained-glass windows were preserved under the supervision of the heritage department.
    • Solar panels were not installed to preserve the villa’s historic look. However, our all-electric approach provides the opportunity to use green energy and to accommodate new technological developments.
    • We improved the insulation of the building’s roof, walls and basement floor. Windows and doors were fitted with the appropriate insulating glazing and equipped with sun blinds.
    • During the redevelopment, we decided to install low-temperature heating instead of the initially planned high-temperature heating. We ensured that it is possible to switch to an individual heat pump or collective district heating at a later stage.
    • We installed individual ventilation type C+ instead of collective ventilation type D, in order to ensure good air quality and circulation, the importance of which was again demonstrated during the Covid-19 pandemic. We have also anticipated the possibility of installing an E+ ventilation system in the future, allowing to recover the heat from the air outlet for low temperature heating and/or hot water production.
    • We also paid special attention to a barrier-free environment for the residents and installed a high-performance cooling system to cope with increasingly frequent heat days.

    Following Aedifica’s redevelopment investments, Villa Casimir received an A rating, indicating the building’s consumption is ‘most efficient’. The building and its installations are now futureproof, fit for the current generation and the next.
    Raoul Thomassen, COO

  • In 2019, Aedifica partnered with an external organization to set up an energy audit pilot project. The goal of this project was to create a solid approach for the development and management of energy-saving measures in our buildings.

    In this pilot project, nine Aedifica properties located in Belgium were audited. Following the audit of the buildings’ energy and heating systems, isolation, lighting, etc., Aedifica invested in the installation of energy-saving infrastructure adjusted to the specific needs of each property.

    The total cost for the capex investments in this pilot project amounted to approximately 2 million EUR. Our main ambitions with this pilot project are:

    • 1,250,000 kWh reduction of overall energy use
    • up to 30% reduction of overall electricity use

    If the pilot project turns out to be a success, we will expand these energy-saving measures to other Aedifica properties, in Belgium as well as the other countries within our portfolio.

    Les Cheveux d’Argent

    Exclusiv

    Heydeveld

    Ennea Rustoord

    Helianthus

    Edelweis

    De Maretak

    Oosterzonne

    Witte Bergen

    Electricity use 2018 (kWh)

    144,000

    245,000

    185,000

    80,000

    162,500

    357,000

    337,000

    140,000

    319,000

    Fuel use 2018 (kWh)

    656,648

    436,547

    640,650

    221,163

    538,219

    893,000

    427,536

    764,620

    880,344

    Specific use electricity (kWh/m²)

    53

    73

    54

    41

    29

    56

    56

    35

    39

    Specific use fuel (kWh/m²)

    243

    129

    186

    150

    95

    141

    71

    189

    107

    Switch from heating oil to gas

    –

    –

    –

    1

    –

    1

    –

    –

    –

    Improve arrangements

    –

    1

    –

    –

    –

    1

    –

    –

    –

    New arrangements

    1

    –

    1

    1

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    New boiler

    –

    –

    1

    –

    –

    –

    –

    1

    –

    New boiler + collector

    1

    –

    –

    1

    –

    1

    –

    –

    –

    Roof insulation

    –

    –

    –

    1

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    Plumbing insulation

    –

    1

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    Solar panels

    1

    1

    1

    1

    1

    1

    1

    1

    1

    Relamping

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    1

    Relighting

    1

    1

    1

    1

    –

    1

    1

    –

    –

    Pumps

    1

    –

    1

    1

    –

    1

    –

    –

    –

    Shower heads

    1

    1

    –

    –

    1

    1

    1

    1

    1

    Split sanitation warm water/central heating with boiler

    1

    1

    1

    1

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

  • The Martha Flora Rotterdam care residence in The Netherlands is intended for the care and housing of people with dementia. The care residence allows residents to live in a safe and secure small-scale environment.

    This new purpose built three-storey care residence, consists of 29 care units varying in size from approximately 45 m² to 72 m². The care residence’s special feature is the ‘Meander’. A ‘Meander’ is a unique and central space, specially designed for people with dementia. It accommodates a place to eat, meet, organise activities and welcome families. The ‘Meander’ consists of a library, a living room, a kitchen, a garden/roof terrace and a workshop and offers direct access to the spacious and peaceful garden. By applying this concept, the care residence provides a sheltered environment where you can feel safe and serene, which creates comfort and contributes to the wellbeing of the residents.

    Furthermore, the care residence has five couples units and a hospitable guest room is available for family and guests to stay.

    • Roof overhangs prevent direct sunlight and excessive heating in summer
    • The building is equipped with a Heat and Cold Storage installation using 2 heat pumps and 125m deep sources to extract soil energy
    • 100% green energy generation through 296 solar panels on the root, providing sufficient energy for the thermal and hot water installation
    • No use of natural gas
    • Balanced ventilation with heat recovery
    • Re-use of various materials from a former church

Get directions

Do you want to pay us a visit at the office? The coffee is ready, you are more than welcome.

We have made sure that you can easily get to our head office in Brussels by public transport: you can reach us by train, metro, bus and bicycle.

If you come by train, you can get off at the station of Brussels-Luxemburg or Brussels-Central. From there you can easily continue on foot to rue Belliard 40. If you come by international train, you get off at Brussels-South station and take metro line 2 or 6 to Trône/Troon or Arts-Loi/Kunst-Wet.

If you come by metro, you can take line 1 or 5 to Arts-Loi/Kunst-Wet or Maelbeek/Maalbeek, or you can take line 2 or 6 to Trône/Troon or Arts-Loi/Kunst-Wet.

If you come by bus, you can take line 21, 27 and 64 to Trêves/Trier, or line 27, 34, 38, 64, 80 and 95 to Science/Wetenschap.

If you take a villo! sharing bike, you can easily park your bike in the Charlemagne/Karel De Grote bike station right in front of our office.

Of course, you can also reach us by car, but we encourage you to consider the environment and use public transport or other eco-friendly transportation options.