Aurora Consortium builds 23 schools

EPICo and Rebel, in collaboration with contractors Democo and Van Roey, form the Aurora consortium. They are currently designing and building 23 schools in Flanders, covering a total area of over 126,000 square meters. The schools are located in Turnhout, Ghent, Ninove, Ertvelde, Haaltert, Ronse, Mechelen, and Lanaken. The total cost of the program is over 300 million euros.

The project also includes a new kindergarten and primary school, De Smiskens in Turnhout, and the City Building Steenakker in Ghent, both of which are already under construction. For community education, these are the first of seven schools in their cluster. The consortium is also building a new school and boarding school for the City of Ghent on the edge of Henri Story Square.

This initiative, supported by public-private partnerships (PPP), was launched in September 2016 by the Flemish government under the leadership of former Education Minister Hilde Crevits. The program includes 38 schools grouped into 12 clusters, with Aurora selected as the sole consortium for all clusters. They are currently working on three clusters and preparing the construction and permits for three more.

The schools are built according to the DBFM formula (Design, Build, Finance, Maintain), where Aurora handles not only design and construction but also financing and 30 years of maintenance. This allows for more efficient work and management of the total costs over the building's lifecycle.