This is a major project that our Belgian teams have just completed in the heart of Brussels: the construction of the new RTBF headquarters, named Média Square. A 38,000 m² building designed to support the transformation of an iconic media organization into a 100% digital, modular, and collaborative ecosystem.
With its 18 studios spread over several floors, Média Square pushes the limits of traditional construction. Each studio has been designed as a perfectly soundproofed unit, decoupled from the building to eliminate any vibration or external noise.
“Some studios span several floors. To build them, we had to set up complex temporary structures until the end of the structural work,” explains Project Director Tom Michiels. Shared equipment, versatile spaces, ultra-technical acoustics… all of these were challenges that shaped the project.
The project also stands out for its ambitious construction choices. Média Square incorporates the activation of concrete cores, a sustainable technique that uses the thermal mass of concrete to provide efficient heating and cooling. This solution required a complete rethink of the technical network layout, installed in an 80 cm raised floor.
To ensure execution accuracy, a BIM printer was used to draw the exact location of technical supports directly onto the subfloor—an industry first that prevented future construction issues.
Another challenge successfully met: the building’s airtightness. From the very first test, the teams achieved a value of 0.30 Vol/h—well below the target of 0.55 Vol/h, and far better than the threshold required for a passive building.
For RTBF, Média Square is much more than just a building. “Média Square embodies our ambitions: a place open to our audiences, conducive to exchanges, and equipped with innovative infrastructure to meet tomorrow’s technological challenges,” says Jean-Paul Philippot, RTBF’s Chief Executive Officer.
The success of this project is based on the close collaboration between the various divisions of Valens, BESIX, and In Advance, brought together within TM VALBESINA, as well as on the commitment of the site team.
👏 Congratulations to all the Belgian teams involved in this complex and highly technical project!
