Urban Exploration - The Radar Antennas of Lessive

This page is a documentary about the Lessive Satellite Earth Station. This site is also known—particularly to the older generations among us—as the Lessive RTT or Belgacom Lessive. It is a vast site featuring parabolic antennas designed to establish satellite communication transfers. The facility is not abandoned. It was temporarily decommissioned while waiting for a planning permit to be processed. As of October 2021, the estate is undergoing a redevelopment project to create reception structures for the elderly, as well as housing and service residences.

Historical and Technical Context
The site was established in 1972 by Bell Telephone with the installation of its first antenna. This type of facility allows for communication between an earth station and a satellite located in space.

The purpose of such an installation is to transport a telecommunication wave from one point to another. In a distant location, an earth antenna emits a carrier wave at 6 GHz. A satellite receives it, converts it to 4 GHz, and transmits it to a receiving antenna—in this case, for example, Lessive. Conversely, Lessive has the capacity to emit at 6 GHz; the satellite receives, converts, and sends it back at 4 GHz to the distant receiving station.

These telecommunication waves carry information, which today translates into a myriad of applications: telephony, television, mobile networks, internet, etc. It should be noted, however, that military communications are not handled here—at least not in Lessive—as those are specific, encrypted, and strictly non-mixed installations. Consequently, exclusively military telecommunications sites are simply located elsewhere.

Expansion and Modern Architecture
Lessive offered a beneficial setting for the installation of such antennas: low urbanization, a basin that cuts the wind, little air traffic, and minimal disturbance to local residents. This combination led to a rapid expansion of the domain, with new antennas being installed.

In 1993, a 52-meter radio tower was installed slightly away from the main site. Today, it heavily carries mobile relays serving the Rochefort sector. Three new parabolic antennas were installed, with heights ranging from 18 to 35 meters, followed by further expansion, though a detailed history is not available. In short, the site currently boasts five majestic antennas and a curious, amusing number of smaller ones.

At the same time, Technobel was created—a training center designed to promote new technologies. The building is located at the foot of the radio tower. A division of property occurred, allowing the Walloon Region to move into these premises, while Belgacom retained the central facility. The Belgacom building features an aesthetic structure (a rarity for that era). With its clean and functional architecture, the building located at the heart of the estate does not suffer from looking dated today.

Decline and Bankruptcy
Unfortunately, a decline began in 2008 when Technobel left the site for a building described as "ultra-modern"—a presumptuous claim, as it is essentially nothing more than an upgraded hangar. The Lessive premises were handed over to an Indian company called ORG Informatics Ltd, which used the dishes to establish radio links, specifically for a beam of Indian television channels broadcast by satellite to Africa.

Simultaneously, Belgacom sought to divest itself of the site, which was gradually becoming obsolete. A sale took place in 2012 for real estate development.

Meanwhile, ORG Informatics Ltd ran into financial difficulties. A subsidiary named BSS (Belgium Satellite Services) was established specifically to manage the Lessive site. However, an inexorable decline followed, and the company was forced into judicial liquidation. With bankruptcy declared, the 6-hectare annex site was abandoned in 2016. A new partition of property allowed the real estate company owning the first lot to consolidate the land, ensuring coherence in the urban development. Now that the plots are grouped under the same aegis, a vast renovation is feasible.

The Garden of Parabolas
In 2018, a planning permit was filed with Rochefort to transform the entire site into a real estate development named "Le Jardin des Paraboles" (The Garden of the Parabolas). Unlike basic and hideous developments (we shall refrain from naming the real estate group located just a few miles away), this project takes a difficult and laudable gamble: preserving the antennas as architectural elements. On one hand, this preserves the historical identity of the place, but it also gives the site a unique character: "both connected and disconnected," as they put it themselves.

The project aims to develop a residence for the elderly in a very quiet, green setting, while incorporating intergenerational mixing. The broker is particularly aware of the difficulty inherent to the site but considers this uniqueness an asset. As an admirer of heritage, one can only support him!

The site was never truly abandoned. It was decommissioned for a time, under the watch of a caretaker. The public inquiry is being conducted to begin construction. Since the visits from the "hooded clowns" of YouTube, the site owner has placed a Malinois shepherd within the fenced enclosure. To those it may concern: consider yourselves warned.