Lucentterrein | Hilversum

Construction of apartment towers at Lucent site proceeds well

Four apartment buildings are being constructed on the former Lucent site in Hilversum on behalf of housing corporation De Alliantie, with a total of 129 apartments for social rent. Construction is going well and is likely to be completed in the fall of 2019.

The apartment buildings are part of the transformation of the 3.5-hectare former office site, on which 300 owner-occupied and rented homes will be built in addition to offices. It will be a new mixed living-working neighborhood, close to Hilversum's city center and train station. Under the site is a parking garage with 132 spaces, which is already in use. On top of that, two of the four apartment buildings will be located in a park-like setting with an open structure, a green living area in the middle of Hilversum. 

State of affairs
Dura Vermeer recently completed construction of the parking garage. Work is currently in full swing on the apartment towers. "Of these, two are now in shell construction, furthermore we are finishing one tower and at the last of the four we are sealing the facades," says Adri van Veggel, business manager at v Hengelo. "We are doing this according to a Design & Build approach, for which we had won the tender based on our preliminary design (VO). So here we are responsible for both the design and the development and construction process. In doing so, we have worked out the engineering process from the VO entirely in BIM."

Layout and construction
Most apartments are identical. With a living area of 75 to 90 m², they contain three or four rooms, and balconies within the facade line. All apartments are situated on a porch with the entrance below and a central inner hall behind it. The apartments have storage in the parking garage. "Actually, it's a construction project where everything is pretty normal," Van Veggel said. "Only the siting of two apartment buildings on top of the underground parking garage can be called a challenge. We had to change the VO slightly to create more parking spaces. This did require a modification of the structure." 

Construction review of four apartment buildings Lucent site.

Foundation
"For the foundation, we had to excavate a little further, paying particular attention to the state and flow of the groundwater. For the foundation, we drilled cast-in-place concrete piles in connection with limiting inconvenience to local residents. For the walls in the parking garage, we also used cast-in-place concrete. For the floors, we used old clinker paving. In the apartments themselves, we installed sand-lime brick intermediate walls, as well as wide slab floors in which the pipes are concealed. The lightweight partition walls consist of Ytong (aerated concrete; ed.). Finally, the unusual and laborious exterior façade is constructed of butt joint-free masonry with prefabricated concrete studs and standing piers alongside the prefabricated plastic window frames."   

Sustainability
Of course, sustainability plays an important role in this project. In addition to reusing the old bricks for the parking garage, the roofs of each building will have 160 PV panels and the project will be connected to district heating. Cooking here will soon no longer be done on gas, but electrically. In addition, rainwater will be infiltrated on the site, so it will also be reused. 

The company manager feels that the project is running smoothly. "This is partly due to the good communication with both local residents and all parties involved in the construction, from the client and the municipality to the contractors and subcontractors."