Your home in Heusden-Zolder

Dear students,

We are very much looking forward to having you as our guests.

On this page you will find some information to help you form an idea of the surroundings and classrooms you will be in during your stay with us.

Your hotel Domain Bovy is situated in a very nice park around a former complex of farm houses. You will be lodged in comfortable rooms with all the necessary provisions. Sheets and towels come with the room. You have free internet access. Have a closer look here and here .

Your dinner will be served in different restaurants at walking distance from Bovy. You will get the necessary calories for your hard work during the day, no doubt there.

We will take you on a nice trip around our province of Limburg in the weekend of your stay. You will enjoy the fabulous castle of Alden Biesen. Very near to that site is Belgium's oldest city, the old Roman town of Tongeren. There you can admire well-preserved Roman brickwork in the city wall and a defense tower. Tongeren is hometown to the European Award winning Gallo-Roman museum. We'll also be visiting Louvain with its exquisite gothic architecture, its uncountable pubs and general terrific ambience as it is a student town.

cvohz

Our school is an education centre for Adults. We house 3000 students, varying in age from 16 to 85. We offer a large number of courses: language teaching, computer training, graphic design, photography, fashion, cooking etc. In the picture you see our current building, but we are starting the construction of a brandnew school, which will be done as a passive house. Have look a the design. You'll have to come back in 2013 to see it completed. We have a second location for the gardening courses. Last September the greenhouses were officially opened. Join the party in this video.

I would like to introduce two people who will be your hosts during your time here.

Fons

This is Fons, your teacher. It's quite impossible to find a better mix of a nice bloke and an expert in passive house building.

And this is Raymond. He's our logistics manager, an overall nice guy with a great sense of humour. You can turn to him for any matter.

Finally, have a look at the pictures of the previous group that were here in October.

Welcome, and 'tot binnenkort' (see you soon).

Englishmen abroad

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Course Progamme

You will stay in the province of Limburg for 11 days. You will learn the principles of passive house building and get a taste of Belgian culture and the work environment in Belgian companies.

The course starts with the theory of passive house building. You practise isolating and airtight finishes on 2 maquettes. You learn to install solar panels and wiring and plumbing of a passive house. You test the job with a blowdoortest and an infrared thermal imager.

Between the theoretical and practical sessions you visit several companies. Group Machiels who build skeletons for passive houses; a strawbale house; the CEDUBO exhibition on durable building; a visit to Kamp C.

You get the chance to meet with other students in our education centre, and give your cooking skills a go in preparing a typical Belgian dish. We'll teach you some basic Dutch phrases and expressions and you will attend a class on electricity and the installation of solar panels.

Our province has a rich history of coal mining industries, you'll see the mine museum in Beringen. This part of Belgian has always been the centre of trading routes to the rest of Europe, even in Roman times. You visit Tongeren, Alden-Biesen and C-Mine in Genk.

In the second week of your stay you apprentice in several Limburg companies, mainly smaller firms for residential electricity and solar panel installation.

Have a look at the pictures below as a preview to your course.

Passive House Course

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