european parliament's £103m geothermal wells

Telegraph (26th Jan) By Bruno Waterfield

Construction work has begun on a £103 million building for the European Parliament, provoking an angry response from residents of Brussels and MEPs.
Atenor, the building’s developer, has admitted that the 12-storey block is at least 15 per cent more expensive than the average construction cost for office space in the European Union’s capital city.

An EU building boom has continued regardless of austerity measures, with projects including a £60 million House of European History and a £280 million urn-shaped “jewel case” site for summits.

It is also paying £77 million over 12 years to rent an 11-storey office block on De Meeussquare, near to the Brussels seat of the parliament.

The cost of the Trebel building in Maelbeek has risen by up to £8 million over the past three months according to local reports, due to fashionable environmental requirements.

Despite unsuitable geological conditions, builders are sinking geothermal bores to harness the power of the Earth’s heat.

“We are digging wells 200 metres (656 feet) deep. This is a major challenge, especially in Maelbeek, which is marshy,” said Stéphan Sonneville, chief executive officer of Atenor.

Trebel is scheduled to be finished in the first half of 2016 to accommodate an increasing number of EU assistants.

ARAU, the Atelier de Recherche et d’Action urbaines, a group of Brussels residents, has described the building as “very ugly”, taking “the form of two bananas connected by a sort of atrium”.

“The proposals go against strengthening the presence of housing in an area that highly requires it,” said the group.

Guillaume Dubois, a resident, complained that EU offices have driven out local residents.

“This place is dead at the weekend, like a morgue,” he said.
The Organisation for European Inter-State Cooperation, a Brussels-based think-tank, estimated that the EU’s expenditure on buildings was £685 million in 2013.