Week of 17 June
1. Exclusive preview of Saint-Denis - Pleyel Station (France)
Last Friday, ten days before the grand opening of the Saint-Denis - Pleyel Station, the employees of our client, the Société des Grands Projets, and of their partners, including BESIX, enjoyed an exclusive preview of this amazing building, set to be the largest station of the Grand Paris Express. The following day, 300 neighbourhood residents explored the new station as well. Soon, they will be among the 250,000 passengers who will travel through it daily.
All partners of the project, the local authorities, and the architect Kengo Kuma were present to welcome the visitors after more than seven years of work. The station will be inaugurated officially on 24 June. Congrats to the whole BESIX Saint-Denis - Pleyel team for this incredible achievement which was possible thanks to a fantastic team spirit with a solution-oriented mindset!
2. Delicate installation of 30-metre beams at Jacques Delens site (Belgium)
Last week seven 30-metre-long glued laminated timber beams arrived at the building site in Brussels, where our subsidiary Jacques Delens is building a brand-new sports complex. These beams, and several shorter ones, are being installed and fitted with precision to the concrete elements to make up the roof structure at 8-9 metres. Success to the team for this delicate operation!
The new sports complex in Brussels involves partially renovating the existing building and constructing a multi-sports hall. The new hall is designed to accommodate a variety of activities, including handball, volleyball, basketball, hockey, badminton, and mini-soccer. It will also be equipped with a grandstand that can seat up to 100 people. The new building will also include changing rooms, sanitary facilities, administrative and technical premises, a cafeteria, a community kitchen, and a terrace overlooking the outdoor sports fields. This renovation and construction project pays particular attention to acoustics and energy performance, including airtightness and rainwater management.
3. Jubilee Place winner at the 2024 Urban Land Institute Asia pacific Awards (Australia)
The Jubilee Place building in Brisbane has won the 2024 Urban Land Institute Asia Pacific Award for Excellence! BESIX Watpac proudly built this complex, featuring a diagrid steel structure that runs from the ground to the top of the building. This strong yet lightweight exoskeleton shifts the weight to the building's edges. Located on a tight site above tunnels and next to the heritage-listed Jubilee Hotel, this impressive project now houses BESIX Watpac's head office. Bravo to our colleagues at BESIX Watpac for this award!
You can learn more here about Jubilee Place’s top-of-the-list complexity as explained by BESIX Watpac Senior Project Manager Andrew Negri in this video.
4. Mohammed VI Tower on a Moroccan banknote
The 200MAD bills in Morocco now feature the Mohammed VI Tower, a tower realised by BESIX in Morocco’s capital, Rabat. This is a beautiful recognition that honours this iconic project.
The 250-metre-high Mohammed VI Tower is designed to be visible from 50 kilometres all round. With a total surface of 102,800 m², the building consists of a tower set on a podium, to resemble a rocket on its launch pad. Today, the team in Rabat is working hard on fit-out works and testing before commissioning. External works around the podium are being progressed in parallel. The team focuses on completing the project by year-end. Stay tuned!
And then this… KiddyBuild session at a Brussels hospital (Belgium)
Last week the children at the UZ Brussel were able to participate in an unusual learning session. Jan Van Steirteghem, our COO Construction, gave them an adapted KiddyBuild session, and they even built a bridge together!
The UZ Brussel Foundation provides young patients with the normal structure that a child misses in a hospital through their ‘Appeltuin’ (‘appel orchard’) concept. Through a variety of learning and play opportunities, the children forget about their illness and are children again for a while. The young patients receive multidisciplinary therapy thanks to the Appeltuin, which limits learning delays and promotes rehabilitation. And this is completely free for patients and their parents!