2013-12-02 – Right next to the old Bata factory and the Wiels Centre for Contemporary Art in Forest, the site of Etablissements Ducuroir (a family business that produced woodworking machinery) is to be converted in a project for the construction of 64 new dwellings, designed with the occupants’ well-being and respect for the environment very much in mind. This leafy, scenic new residential development is situated on a 7,450 m² site, at numbers 306-312 on Avenue Van Volxem. Work is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2015.
The Ducuroir project will involve the construction of two sustainable apartment buildings (with 5 and 6 storeys), positioned one behind the other parallel to the road, and linked by a centrally situated landscaped common garden. To the rear, a large allotment garden will be available for the use of the co-owners.
The project as a whole was the subject of a competitive procedure, and citydev.brussels will sell 32 ‘passive’ standard apartments at a subsidised price. The other half of the apartments will belong to the private developer JCX, and for reasons of technical feasibility will be built to the ‘very low energy’ standard.
With this operation, JCX aims once again to raise its profile, having already made its presence felt in other projects completed on Avenue Van Volxem. Following the renovation of the site of the former Wielemans brewery, which has become the Wiels Centre for Contemporary Art, JCX thus took on the conversion of the old Bata shoe factory into housing.
According to the Brussels Minister for the Environment, Energy and Urban Regeneration, ‘The Ducuroir project is a further example of the transformation of this district, which was initiated by the authorities some years ago by means of urban regeneration projects such as Wiels, Brass, the Bervoets district, the sustainable district contracts and the Divercity project. All these projects have helped breathe new life into the district, with new housing, facilities, green spaces, a better social mix and so on.’
