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Volvo Experience Center

A new timber building now welcomes visitors to Volvo Trucks Belgium, transforming the site into a visible landmark along the R4 corridor. Designed for sustainability, openness, and connection, the Volvo Experience Center links key functions while embodying the brand’s Scandinavian heritage.

  • Client: Volvo Trucks Ghent
  • Location: Oostakker, Belgium
  • Category: Community, Work landscapes
  • Program: Renovation and extension entry zone and experience center
  • Status: Completed
  • Building area: 400m²
  • Collaborators: Spanbo
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The new Volvo Experience Center transforms the arrival experience for visitors to Volvo Trucks. At its heart is a striking timber-framed entrance that leads to the auditorium and showroom — a warm, visible landmark that redefines the site’s identity.

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Sustainability is central to the design. The structure is largely demountable, ensuring adaptability for future needs while supporting Volvo’s vision for circular and environmentally responsible building. Timber plays a key role in this strategy — as a renewable material, it requires less energy to produce than steel or concrete, and during its life cycle it stores the carbon absorbed by the trees it came from.

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This means the building not only avoids CO₂ emissions associated with conventional construction but actively locks away carbon from the atmosphere.

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The benefits go beyond carbon. Timber construction reduces reliance on fossil-based materials, supports sustainable forestry, and enables a lighter structural footprint. Its precision prefabrication allows for cleaner, faster assembly with minimal site disruption, and its components can be easily disassembled and reused in the future.

Beyond its technical and environmental benefits, the entrance exudes a distinctive character. Its warm materiality and transparent design convey openness, visibility, and symbolic value for both visitors and employees. The choice of wood reflects Volvo’s Scandinavian heritage, embedding a subtle cultural connection into the architectural experience.

Previously, the Volvo Trucks complex consisted of interconnected industrial buildings without a clear point of arrival. The new entrance changes that, offering a welcoming focal point and central reception hub. It also creates a more efficient connection between production areas, offices, the cafeteria, and other facilities, improving orientation and enhancing the visitor journey.

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Team
Eva Delrue, Veroniek Vanhaecke, Hoi Kee Man, Nigel Jooren, Maaike Cauwels, Iwona Sternal
Credits

Pictures: August Van de Gracht

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