Eurocontrol Innovation Hub

Elioth contributed its structural engineering expertise to design a lightweight, low-carbon hybrid timber–concrete structure.

The future building includes:

• A tertiary (office) zone on the majority of the south side of the building. This superstructure predominantly exposed timber and consists, in its typical sections, of an internal glued-laminated timber column-and-beam frame, CLT load-bearing façade panels, ribbed hybrid timber–concrete or CLT floor slabs, and concrete cores at the vertical circulation areas.

• A volume on the north side of the building dedicated to public and event functions, including the building’s main entrance hall, a double-height 180-seat auditorium with an event space above, along with metal walkways and staircases. The auditorium forms a self-supporting box and is mainly composed of a peripheral steel frame supporting hybrid timber–concrete floor slabs.

• A second single-storey building to the west, 7.3 m high and topped with a large planted roof garden, housing simulation spaces with both mezzanine and double-height zones. This building is constructed in concrete for programmatic reasons, with large-span prestressed hollow-core slabs and cast-in-place insulated load-bearing concrete walls.

• An infrastructure level in reinforced concrete accommodating parking and numerous technical rooms.

Elioth provided its façade expertise to design lightweight façades that are both energy-efficient and that minimize their carbon footprint as much as possible, while preserving the intended architectural identity.

The future building includes:

• A main facade characterized by an alternating pattern of large curved vertical aluminum fins acting as sun-shading elements, oriented South and fixed onto a CLT structure. The vision areas feature wood-aluminum window frames with an aluminum cassette transom. The façade includes interior fabric roller blinds for shading.

• Steel skylights integrating fixed external shading devices and operable windows for natural ventilation and smoke extraction.

• Double-height wood-aluminum or aluminum curtain walls.

The targeted environmental certifications are HQE Sustainable Building V4, BBCA Construction Label V4.1, Biosourced Label (process) Level 3, and PassivHaus Certification.

Elioth carried out numerous optimization studies to meet the targeted certifications and labels, including daylight analyses, material selection, carbon optimization of the project, integration of renewable energy on the roof, bioclimatic façade design, and optimization of energy consumption.