ITM Heritage Fund

When ITM's main building was built, energy standards were non-existent. Many authentic elements, such as the stained-glass windows, have high heritage value but little durability. Moreover, after almost 100 years, many original elements of the building envelope are in need of renovation, such as facades, windows and roofs. Our Safety Health & Environment and Facility Management Units launched a project to improve the building's energy value while respecting its heritage. In doing so, they aim to respect the original appearance of façades and internal spaces as much as possible.

As late as the early 1990s, the original black and white patterned floor tiles and green wall tiles in the ITM building were systematically replaced by more modern ones. We want to reverse that evolution. In fact, while drawing up the heritage management plan, we discovered that the architects wanted to use the formal language of the interior to make it clear to the visitor what kind of space they were in, namely a primary (ceremonial), secondary (practical) or tertiary (technical) space. By bringing back the architects' original vision as much as possible, we want to restore harmony to the building.

Room Broden functioned as ITM's library from 1933 to 1985. In 1985, the library moved to two new floors built on top of ITM. However, Room Broden had not emerged unscathed from the mid-20th century. Under general manager Marc Van Boven, Room Broden was restored as much as possible in the 1990s, but the original bookcases in the south wall were closed for acoustic reasons. We now want to restore those bookcases to match the original interior as closely as possible.