Concertgebouw will soon arouse solar energy via facade, and there is a strong price tag: “Version planned for 2027 and 2028” (Bruges)

There is a shot in the case of the facade renovation of the Concertgebouw. This was forced to announce the renovation of the building cladding of the building in September 2023. The terracotta façade tiles turned out to be porous over the years and the underlying wooden slats rotten. As a result, the pans threatened to fall down.

The verdict was hard: after just 20 years, all 68,000 façade tiles had to be removed. The Concertgebouw, however, decided to make a virtue of the need and proclaimed the pans to replace with photovoltaic copies – solar panels, so to speak. One problem: those new, photovoltaic pans must have the same view as the old one, and that material does not yet exist.

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But that changes, because a call from the Concertgebouw to candidates who want to design, produce and install the desired cladding did not remained unanswered. « We are very satisfied with the response to the market demand for a solar energy solution for the building shell of the Concertgebouw, » says Katrien Van Eeckhoutte, Managing Director Concertgebouw Brugge. « We have recently selected four consortia, consisting of national and international experts, who are invited to submit a quotation. »

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If everything goes according to plan, two consortia will go through an innovation process from 2026. The objective of this is to obtain an optimal design of the building shell, taking into account technical, financial and aesthetic conditions. The future cladding must therefore approach the old as well as possible.

13.3 million euros

There is a solid price tag on the entire operation. The investment cost is for the time being estimated on just under 13.3 million euros. But, as previously announced, Flanders and the city of Bruges will share that account. The Bruges city council also approved that principle this week. « The share of the city of Bruges is therefore at around 6.6 million euros, provided that Flanders also fulfills its promise, » confirms Mayor Dirk De Fauw, who expects that Flemish and European subsidies will be reduced by 2.9 million euros. « The implementation is already planned for 2027 and 2028, » said De Fauw.

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