Eye-catching aluminum facade for hotel

For cladding the facades of its hotels, the Van der Valk family has long opted for aluminum composite. This was no different at the Venlo branch. Aldowa Composites was approached by the architect and client at an early stage to help design the aluminum composite cladding. The company from Rotterdam, which specializes in the development, engineering, construction, production and assembly of facades, especially for applications with challenging, complex designs, was eventually awarded the contract.

From development to assembly

"We can simply produce façade elements, but of course we prefer to do the complete process, elaborating the architect's ideas and designs into solutions that are technically feasible for everyone. For us, each project starts with discussions with that architect, after which we take care of the engineering, production and assembly of the façade elements," explains René Janssen, account manager at Aldowa Composites. "That's how it happened at Van der Valk in Venlo. We provided the cladding of the facades for the low-rise, but also for the columns, parapets and balconies as well as the roof structure and edges for the tower. Where natural stone was not used, you see aluminum composite elements. The plinth was done in Silk gray RAL 7044, while for the tower the darker Umbra gray RAL 7022 was chosen. The inside of the balconies received a wood-look print (Malta Oak)."

Assembly as a major challenge

Aldowa Composites installed approximately 4,400 m² of aluminum composite cladding. The assembly direction presented the biggest challenge. For example, the assembly teams built in an upward movement with the scaffolding, but for the anchoring of that scaffolding, some points had to be left free. When the scaffolding was dismantled, all empty spots still had to be filled. "In the process, all connection points also had to be done correctly," Janssen concludes. "The result is worth seeing and, moreover, this is another successful example of the cross-fertilization between Aldowa Composites and the colleagues at Aldowa, who were responsible for the underlying construction and the additional bracing."