Saint Michel

A special place to live, work and shop.

From tobacco depot to school. The contrast couldn't be much greater. On the historic site of the former tobacco depot St. Michel, students took up residence on September 1. The new campus should in the first place help to eliminate the lack of space in the Brussels Dutch-speaking education system, but also give a boost to the Maritiemwijk in Molenbeek.

The Maritiem neighborhood is developing rapidly. More and more functions are finding a place there, now including education. The neighborhood around Tour & Taxis has an unseen dynamic with projects such as Herman Teirlinck, Tivoli Green City, the construction of the Picard Bridge and the construction of the Becopark next to the Havenlaan. These new schools will also have a central place in this district. With this project, the FCC also wants to ensure more social cohesion and development opportunities for young people, by developing a leisure offer in the schools in addition to school hours. The campus will occupy a total area of approximately 17,000 m² and offer a total range of services within secondary education. The GO! Lyceum Martha Somers will move from Laken to Molenbeek and organize an ASO offer. The Imelda Institute (non-profit KatOBA) is moving from Brussels and Anderlecht and will provide technical and vocational secondary education. This allows the capacity of Dutch-speaking education to grow by 1,167 places.

The concrete frame structure of the building of the former tobacco factory will be retained in the renovation and will facilitate the construction of modular spaces between the existing concrete columns. There will be a total of 80 classrooms in addition to two gymnasiums, several labs, multipurpose rooms and playgrounds on the roof.