Developments continue apace on the site of the old Fritz Toussaint barracks in Ixelles, now known as Usquare.brussels. This time, four of the central buildings located around the main courtyard of the site will be redeveloped. Once completed, the gross floor area for the new development will be 20,000 m², and it will house 480 student rooms as well as various facilities and retail outlets. The approach is varied: three buildings will be renovated or transformed, while the fourth one will be rebuilt.

The Brussels Region, the Université Libre de Bruxelles and Vrije Universiteit Brussel have decided to make the Urban Development Corporation (SAU) responsible for launching the project. The SAU, in turn, has chosen a DBFM procedure because the project not only involves designing the buildings but also making them available to the universities and maintaining them for thirty years.

More than anything else, this project is a fantastic opportunity to achieve current local planning objectives. By conserving a majority of the buildings and respecting the urban grid of the site, the identity will be preserved, with contemporary additions to what already exists. Going even further, the SAU aims to make Usquare.brussels in general (and the student accommodation in particular) a pilot site for a sustainable city, a circular economy and the fight against global warming, following the example of the projects that have already been initiated on the site.