Type of work

Others non residential

Haren Prison

Belgium

  • Facade under construction of Haren Prison
  • Facade under construction of Haren Prison

Description

This contract involves designing, building, financing, operating and maintaining a new prison complex for 25 years in Haren, a municipality in the City of Brussels. It is located near Zaventem airport, the Vilvoorde viaduct and the future shopping centre Uplace in Machelen.

Construction of the Haren prison consists of 108,000 built up square metres on a surface area of 15 hectares, for 1,190 prisoners and 1,000 administrative employees. The perimeter security wall is over 1,200 metres long.

The prison will have fourteen units: two prisons for convicted offenders, six male prisons for arrestees, two female ones, both open and closed, one for young offenders, one for psychiatry and one prison hospital. It also includes an entrance complex, a main building with a visitors' area, hearings area, a detainee settlement complex, a national transfer complex and a sports area. Other service buildings will include a control and intervention area, an area for security forces, a workshop area for the inmates, a logistics area, administration areas, as well as car parks for employees and visitors.

The building typology is common for this type of building: pile foundations, walls and reinforced concrete structure, facades and typical roofing. The high levels of safety required in terms of fires, safe use and integral accessibility must be taken into account.

Haren is the first concessions project won by FCC in Belgium. It joins the list of many other national and international projects carried out within the social and health care sector, including hospitals and courts.

IJ Global Awards 2018

Best Social Infrastructure Project

Highlights

  • Alongside a local partner, FCC is in charge of designing and building the Haren prison which on completion will be the largest in Belgium.
  • Haren is the first project FCC has invested in as a concessionaire in Belgium.
  • It will replace the obsolete prisons of Saint-Gilles, Vorst and Berkendael, located in the City of Brussels.
  • The building was designed to fulfil the Belgian government's vision of offering a human prison, guaranteeing the required levels of safety and security.