Ministers open new Red Cross-lab in Ragheno-park in Mechelen.
Premier Charles Michel of Belgium and federal minister Maggie the Block of Health Care openend today (4th. June 2015) in the presence of Jo Vandeurzen (Flemish minister of Public Health) and mayor Bart Somers of Mechelen the new central laboratory blood bank of the Red Cross Flanders in Mechelen.
The State-of-the-art building, bearing the Esperanto name Sango (blood) is part of the Ragheno Park in Mechelen, one of the oldest industrial sites in Flanders, which Beherman Invest (Jacques and Olivier Beherman) redevelops. Beherman Invest sold the land for the property, (as previously for the opposite Sango located administrative Red Cross headquarters) and developed the building in cooperation with Bopro NV. Polo Architects signed for the architecture in cooperation with VK Engineering.
Sango houses the new Red Cross donor center of Flanders, the eleventh in the region, the Flemish blood bank, the main donor laboratory, the center for the Flemish blood service and the bone marrow bank. The Sango complex stands for ecologically and economically sound building in Belgium. This edifice is the first in Belgium to be qualified as “Outstanding” by the prestigious BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), a classification where both the developers and the Red Cross are proud of.