Vanhout, a BESIX Group subsidiary, has acquired a 40% stake in the Belgian company BuildUp, formerly known as BeSteel.
BuildUp develops innovative and sustainable solutions in the field of modular construction. These solutions include the digital design of custom buildings, their automated prefabrication in the company's workshop and their assembly on site.
Ronny Eijckmans, Managing Director of Vanhout Group: “BuildUp designs and builds tailor-made structures, offering clients and architects extensive freedom that breaks with traditional prefabrication. This has a positive impact on costs, operational efficiency and planning compliance. BuildUp's innovative approach is also an example of how state-of-the-art modular construction can contribute to improving the environmental footprint of our sector. Vanhout is particularly pleased to extend its offering to clients with these products and to support the growth of BuildUp. Vanhout is looking forward to our future joint success, together with BuildUp's CEO, Hélène de Troostembergh, and the company's teams.”
On the sustainable side, BuildUp's modular approach focuses on optimising structures at the design stage, which has an impact on materials quantities. The in-house integration and coordination of design, prefabrication and assembly also reduces waste and transport requirements. In addition, the materials used by the company are primarily locally produced, sustainable and certified, and offer a high level of traceability.
On the operational side, the methods developed by the company offer a high level of cost control, an accurate view of the planning and reduce construction time on site to an absolute minimum.
All elements, after digital design by BuildUp engineers, are produced in the company's workshop, including the structure, windows, doors, insulation and claddings. These are then transported on site for rapid assembly. The entire process is also digitised, which makes the constructions future-proof.
Pierre Sironval, Deputy CEO of BESIX Group: “The construction sector is a major source of CO2 emissions in the world. At BESIX Group, we are therefore convinced that our sector is also at the heart of the solution. The acquisition of a stake in BuildUp is part of our ongoing efforts to make construction more sustainable to which modular construction contributes. It is in line with BESIX's recent initiatives in smart buildings, digitalisation and robotisation of our methods, as well as the application of circular practices, the use of sustainable materials and the delivery of buildings and infrastructure that meet high environmental standards. We are very pleased to further strengthen this approach with BuildUp, which we will continue to do in the years to come.”
Based in Aarschot, in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant, BuildUp was founded in 2016 by its current CEO, Hélène de Troostembergh. The company currently has 90 employees.
