New important step in preserving the many historic lifts in Brussels
In February last year, Minister of Economy and Work Pierre-Yves Derm and Brussels Secretary for Urban Planning and Ergoed Pascal Smet announced that they would work together on a solution for preserving the many historic lifts in Brussels. Under existing regulations, lifts to be installed before 1958 should be modernized by December 31, 2022. The standards implemented in these procedures in realities often lead irrevocably to the damage of the historical, aesthetic and technical properties of the lifts.
Today the proposal for an amended regulatory framework is ready. To get the owners of historic elevators until the end of 2027 to do too.
A new category of ‘historic lifts’ will be included in the amended Royal Decree.
Lifts in this category will not only have an extended deadline until the end of 2027 to do so, they will also receive adjusted regulations. Pierre-Yves Dermagne and Pascal have reached an agreement with the political leaders of the other regions and the current administrations.
The aim of these amended regulations is to ensure the safety of users and maintenance technicians without affecting the heritage value of the lift. This is possible by allowing the use of alternative technologies within this category of elevators, such as electronic security systems for example. The existence of the Royal Decree now lies for the advice of various advisory federal commissions.
“These monumental stairwells with lifts in the middle are all beautiful examples. They bear witness to an undeniably rich heritage,” Pierre-Yves Dermagne. “We absolutely had to find a solution in which respect for this rich heritage and the safety requirements for those lifts go hand in hand. I am therefore very pleased that a constructive solution was found together with my colleague Pascal Smet. It is on the founding date that the owners concerned take all the steps,” said Minister of Economy and Employment Pierre-Yves Dermagne.
“We are avoiding a historic mistake. Brussels, but also other Belgian cities, have many beautiful historic lifts. It would be a shame to remove these. Fortunately, in very constructive cooperation with my federal colleague Pierre-Yves Dermagne, we were able to stop this just in time. Today we have already been able to save more than 800 historic lifts in Brussels by including them in our inventory. I still call on all owners of historic lifts in Brussels who have not yet done so, to contact Homegrade Brussels to have the lift added to our inventory. Only the elevators that have been inventoried fall under these new regulations,” says Brussels State Secretary for Urban Planning and Heritage Pascal Smet.
This inventory is prepared by Homegrade Brussels in close collaboration with urban.brussels. Receive a certificate from the historical administration of urban.brussels on this list. This does not mean that adjustments must be made by the end of 2022 to comply with the regulations. Owners of historic lifts with a certificate until the end of 2027 have the time to have the lifts up to a new standard developed specifically for the size of these lifts.
The collective Save Our Elevators, which has been discussing the disappearance of the historic elevators in Brussels for some time, reacts positively to the new regulations and looks ahead.
It is the victory of a coalition of goodwill at the federal, regional and municipal level with the heritage authorities, the heritage authorities, this struggle for the In the next stage, the technical solutions will be adapted to each historical elevator. by opening their co-owned events during. This way, during the BANAD Festival and Heritage Days, for example, this heritage can get the attention it deserves,”
Frédéric Bequet, save our elevators