“In Europe, 43 million homes have to undergo an energy renovation to make our continent climate neutral by 2050. This is a gigantic task that entails an enormous cost for governments, but also unseen opportunities for those who want to exploit the potential of offsite construction,” confirms Hélène de Troostembergh, CEO of BuildUp, expert in digitalised offsite new build and energy renovation in which sustainability is central to every step of the process. “Offsite energy renovation stands for: deep and structural renovation of homes into energy-neutral homes by applying an insulating building shell around the houses with complete facades and roofs that are assembled in our production hall. This enables us to carry out major projects, such as the energy renovation of a social housing estate, in record time. And record time can be taken literally: one day per house.”
Belgian BuildUp from Aarschot evolved from the company BeSteel, founded in 2016, market leader in steel frame construction in the Benelux. In addition, it also focuses on digitalised offsite construction, both for new build and energy renovation. “The latter is based on a scan of the existing building. The various construction elements (walls, floors and roofs) are then assembled as components in the workshop. Within 24 hours, they are then slid over an existing building on the construction site, like a ‘climate jacket’. A groundbreaking plug & play method on the basis of biobased and circular materials. With a minimal impact on residents, because they can simply stay at home during the works. At the same time, there is also less waste (another cost item) and a zero margin of error thanks to the digital design,” Hélène clarifies. BuildUp has been selected several times by Europe for large-scale energy renovation projects of, among other things, schools and social housing, such as in Wattrelos in northern France, where it converted 160 social housing units with energy label F into energy-neutral homes in 10 months.