BNP Paribas Fortis, Brussels, Belgium

Project type:

  • Multi-storey building

Application:

  • Masonry - crack control

Partners:

  • Owner: BNP Paribas Fortis
  • Design engineers: Baumschlager Eberle - THV, Jaspers - Eyers Architects
  • General contractor: Eiffage
  • Quality control: Seco 

The new BNP Paribas Fortis headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, accommodates 4,500 workstations, which is about 70% more than the previous capacity. It features an overall floor space of 95,000 m² and about 35,000 m²  reinforced masonry.

Clement Rabeux, Project Manager at Eiffage, talks about the requirements of the masonry reinforcement they sought for this project, and how Murfor® Compact steel cord reinforcement, satisfied all the criteria. 

The challenge

“As the building is located in the heart of Brussels, construction time was tight. Therefore, we required materials that are easy to carry to the job-site and that are easy and safe to use. When choosing masonry reinforcement, we were immediately drawn to Murfor® Compact because its compact size, light weight and straight-forward use.” 

The solution

“Handling Murfor® Compact is efficient and ergonomic for the builder. The product weighs almost 10 times less than other traditional reinforcement solutions. In terms of figures, the 76 km of Murfor® Compact reinforcement weighs only 2.7 tons while the same length of traditional reinforcement weighs over 23 tons. The product is also very compact. Delivering the reinforcement for each phase of the wall construction required only one truck.”

“The reinforcement unrolls onto the brickwork and cuts easily to size. Moreover, we need less product as no overlaps are needed with this product; each centimeter of the reinforcement is used, while using classic reinforcement usually results in trimmings and waste.”