Arteveldehogeschool in Ghent

This new building houses teaching and research activities in health care and commercial sciences. It houses up to 4 000 students and 500 workers.

The total area of 32 500 m² covers the classes, laboratories, training rooms and offices for the administration and the teaching staff, but also five auditoria (2 x 99, 133, 228 and 407 places), a restaurant of 436 places and a large media library with view on the Scheldt. Two underground levels offer place for 230 cars and 120 bicycles for the staff. Close to the main entrance, 670 more parking spaces for bicycles are available for the students.

The complex is composed of a mean building four levels high and a tower of eleven storeys upper ground.

The concrete structure is partly prefabricated (beams, slabs and part of the columns). The auditoria are realised in cantilever outside the media library. The side walls of the auditorium in ribbed concrete contribute to acoustics. The flagstone ceiling of the media library and the restaurant is covered with bricks posed in formwork bottom.

The foundations are made of group of piles located under the columns. The lowest level is located two meters lower than the ground water surface.