Green living at De Lediaan in Diegem, Belgium
The site, which was fallow for more than 40 years, will be given a new purpose. Soon it will be possible to live there in green surroundings. By redeveloping the old Desmedt site, we are pioneering at national and European level in upgrading landfills and integrating them sustainably into their surroundings.
Lediaan sandstone was quarried on the old Desmedt site until 1960. After that, the site served as a dump for construction debris until 1977 and the area became neglected. We bought the site and started its rehabilitation in 2023.
Together with Urbicoon, we are building a 1.8 ha publicly accessible park with space for a total of 168 Near Energy Neutral houses, studios, city flats and penthouses. This project offers the chance to live sustainably, peacefully and qualitatively in the outskirts of Brussels, with all the amenities of the capital within easy reach.
We reached the highest construction point in the summer of 2024 and by the end of the same year, the buildings were wind and watertight. The delivery of the first phase of the project is scheduled for the end of 2025.
Johan Geeroms, Managing Director of our Project Development projects:
The landfill material consists mainly of construction debris and is therefore easily siftable. Wherever possible, the sieved-out rubble will be used as foundation material for roads and buildings. Here, we not only treat the waste materials present in the soil, but reuse both the historically deposited construction rubble and the space itself. We thus fully comply with the circular principles of ‘Waste to Land’ and ‘Waste to Materials’.
De Lediaan in numbers
Did you know?
- In 2015, the Flemish government approved the OVAM concept note on sustainable stockpile management of landfills. This makes Flanders the first region in the world to manage landfills with a view to optimal spatial integration into the living environment (Waste to Land) and possible valorisation or extraction of the contents (Waste to Material). The old Desmedt site is part of two innovative European research projects (COCOON and RAWFILL) for the revaluation of old landfills, in which we participate as a partner together with OVAM with our project in Diegem.
- Spread over 5 building volumes, this site will feature 168 Near Energy Neutral residential units: from studio, city flat, park flat, penthouse to town house.
- By opting for compact living, 82% of the site remains green space. Collective gardens and an underground car park ensure a car-free neighbourhood.
- All-in-one semi-collective installations with heat pumps and solar installations will be installed on the roofs. These will take care of all energy supplies: from heating to (passive) cooling and ventilation.
