Thermoelectric power station and thermodynamic laboratory

Val Benoit

After the First World War, the University of Liège, which had based its activities in the historic center of the city of Liège since its foundation in 1817, was looking for new spaces to accommodate the important development of science and technology education. In 1924, the University of Liège purchased eight hectares of land around the ruins of the old Val-Benoît Abbey. The construction of the Val-Benoît site by the University of Liège is being carried out under the leadership of Marcel Dehalu, professor of topography at the technical faculty. The project involves the creation of five new complexes: an institute of applied chemistry and metallurgy, an institute of mineral sciences, a thermodynamics laboratory linked to a heating plant, an institute of mechanics and an institute of civil engineering.

The inauguration of the first buildings – the Institute of Chemistry and Metallurgy, the Institute of Civil Engineering, the Thermodynamics Laboratory and the Thermoelectric Power Plant – took place on November 26, 1937 in the presence of Leopold III, on the occasion of the centenary of the ' My school. The mechanical institute, still under construction, was inaugurated shortly before the Second World War. The buildings were damaged by bombing during the war between 1944 and 1945 and were restored in 1947 to mark the centenary of the Association of Graduate Engineers of the University of Liège. The site was built between 1930 and 1965 and was gradually abandoned by the University of Liège, which moved most of its activities to the Sart-Tilman campus from 1967 onwards. In 2006 the last students, the structural engineers, left the site

Rehabilitation
Abandoned for several years, the site received a new lease of life in the early 2000s. Some buildings were rehabilitated. This is the case of the old abbey, as well as the former Mathematics Institute, both acquired and renovated by FOREM. The Higher School of Actors (Esact) of the Royal Conservatory of Liège also occupies part of the former mathematics institute.

Since 2007, the SPI, the economic development agency for the province of Liège, has been interested in this site and, in collaboration with the city of Liège and the University of Liège, has proposed a rehabilitation project called “VAL BENO!T”. While preserving most of the old university buildings and their modernist architecture, the objective of the SPI is to create an innovative economic center (light production companies, offices, business center, co-working space, etc.) with more than twenty hectares in a classic park, with a vertical layout in “company apartments”. The surrounding areas are being redeveloped with a view to creating a real urban park in this part of the city which is relatively poorly endowed with green spaces.

Thermoelectric power station and thermodynamic laboratory.

Built 1932 - architect Albert-Charles Duesberg

Made up of finely fitted parallelepipeds, faced in bush-hammered concrete and largely glazed – some frames reaching 12m by 15m, the whole cubist-looking ensemble, whose function strictly governs the form, betrays the influence of Henry Van de Velde (Nouvelle Maison, 1928; Wolfers house, 1930).

Anchored on Franki piles, the complex is topped by a chimney tower (50 m) hiding a gigantic pressure gauge. The large rooms are free plan: that of the boilers extends, without intermediate supports, over 24m long, 18m wide and 14m high; it supports three coal silos from 100t each thanks to an assembly of concrete beams (Freyssinet system).

Coupled with didactic purposes with a thermodynamics laboratory, the central supplies the buildings with gas, drinking water, hot water for heating and electricity – the surplus of which could be supplied to the external distribution network – by means of underground galleries, and includes, at a height of 35m, a water tank for deal with a fire.