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THE CHARLEROI FIRE STATION
To come up with a proposal for the Charleroi fire station, Samyn Cost-cutting modifications freed up room to add features not origi-
and Partners, together with its associated design forms, worked nally planned or to refine others in the context of a fruitful collabo-
together with the construction consortium Blaton-Thomas & Piron ration with enthusiastic craftsmen open to new ideas, as was the
and its subcontractors for a period of 5 months. case with the training tower.
Their goal was to come up with a functional yet original and In this case, an administrative delay also gave the team more time
symbolic building for a fixed budget. to think through things with the subcontractors.
The Bouwteam’s brainstorming sessions questioned the technical This also led to more comprehensive and detailed plans, for
and functional choices. At one of the early meetings, the idea that instance the change from a concrete structure to prefabricated
“trucks should not have to reverse” led to the building’s circular elements. Although at first seen as more difficult, the use of these
design, even though the initial competition for a “low-cost” project elements meant a considerable reduction in construction time (of
(cancelled for administrative reasons) had specified a rectangular fundamental importance for a project with a fixed completion date)
building. and required a lower-skilled workforce, thereby cutting the cost.
High performance, quality, flexibility, a fixed budget and the Bouw-
“In these meetings, we were quickly able to see the project risks team’s cohesion (as seen in the execution phase) - these were the
from a construction perspective. It was always a question of bal- keywords of this Design & Build project.
ancing design and construction considerations!”
During both the design and execution phases, quality was con-
“The site started driving the project, with all questions revolving stantly monitored, meaning that a lot of the provisional acceptance
around it. The design teams were fully focused on it.” remarks were already dealt with during the building work.This again
Thomas & Piron and Philippe Samyn considerably reduced the amount of remarks on final acceptance.
While there is a certain room for manoeuvre between theory and “Carrying out a Design & Build project with Philippe Samyn is
practice, designs were always subject to permanent financial moni- a great way of doing things! He has great technical competence
toring. Periodic budgetary assessments led to alternative proposals and is always questioning things.”
such as replacing wooden window frames by ones made of PVC. Thomas & Piron Bâtiment
