Overview and recommendation on urban densification potential in Liège, Belgium

Belgium, like many European Countries, has a serious challenge in the housing sector. The Federal planning bureau estimates the increase of population by one million inhabitants by 2030, which represent 600.000 additional family requiring accesses to new housing facilities. Population ageing (mainly due to increasing life expectancy) combined with a constant growing rate of individuals living in collective households, leads to a substantial increase of demand of collective households (Vandresse & Bureau, 2013). This highlights a substantial challenge underlined mainly in the need to live in cities, which as consequence will increase the demand for smaller housing with or without integrated services or equipment in common. Furthermore, the stringent European performance environmental regulations for the building sector require that by 2020, all new construction are zero or nearly zero energy, (equivalent to 15 kWh/m2/year), with 60% efficient on-site coverage by renewable energy. The shortage of vacant land and the increasing energy performance requirements is pushing the idea of urban densification and zero energy construction households. During the recent 6 years, there has been a trend to use timber frame constructions as a sustainable solution facing the economic and environmental crisis in Belgium. However, there is lack of knowledge on the design, construction and operation of zero energy lightweight constructions for urban densification. The goal of this research is to provide an overview and recommendation on urban densification potential in Liège Province. The focused aim is to demonstrate validated design prototypes and products of different zero energy, timber frame construction systems and composite components. Thus inform and support the decision making of policy makers, municipalities, developers, and architects and building engineers in Belgium.