Antwerps Port House, called ‘Havenhuis’ in dutch, is an architectural eye-catcher, not only for architectural lovers. The building is a mixture of old and new building parts: The base of the building is a refurbished fire station of the city Antwerp that is used as an office building today. About 500 employees of the Port of Antwerp doing their jobs there. The top of this restored building stands out with a modern and precious design. The roofs shape reminds of the appearance of a boat. The construction period was from 2012 to 2016.
There was a clear goal how the Port House energy performance should look like in the end. The challenge was to use the right building automation devices to fulfill the goals of the project. Thanks to the modern building automation products, the energy performance BREEAM ‘Very Good' could be achieved.
To reach a ‘Very Good’ energy performance an intelligent building automation system is needed. ABB i-bus® KNX was the perfect solution to realize such a big project. About 20 KNX lines and approximately 700 KNX devices help to make that happen. Products that help to increase the energy performance: Busch-Presence detector premium KNX controls light and room climate when people enter the defined area. That indeed saves energy and costs. In addition the shutter control was combined with the weather station to make sure the blinds were optimally positioned at any time.
Yes, measures to increase the energy efficiency of the building shows, that a ABB i-bus® KNX solution would be the optimal solution to reach all defined targets. That’s why the consultant advised to install KNX during planning phase.