Stek 13, Dordrecht | Gemeentearchief becomes fine place to live

Renovation, transformation and new construction. In the realization of apartment building Stek 13, in a former municipal archive in Dordrecht, all these disciplines come together. Complex? Beautiful and challenging, they think at Van Wijnen. For the construction company, this is the ideal location to create a pleasant living environment, together with its client Twenty-four Real Estate.

"We are performing this work in a construction team," says work planner Rob van Dijke of Van Wijnen. "Twenty-four Real Estate had conceived the plan in 2016 to create 29 life-proof apartments for the elderly in the former municipal archive. The challenge here was to create a residential function in a building built for document storage. And to do so within a tight budget and with as much preservation of the existing characteristics as possible."

Van Wijnen is building 29 lifetime apartments in a former municipal archive.

Different parts

The building has four floors and consists of several parts. The oldest part, where the main entrance is located, dates from 1915 and is protected cityscape. A section separated by a void was added to it in 1975: a heavy, concrete structure with a steel roof and a basement with elevator. A building section was also added to the side of the building in 1975. There, a round-shaped stairwell formed the separation from the original section.

On the inside of the 1915 section placed
Van Wijnen new interior walls.

Special apartments

"We are renovating the 1915 section with as much preservation of the existing as possible," says John Sprangers, foreman at Van Wijnen. "This results in special apartments that include small voids and characteristic windows. On the inside, we are installing new interior walls and ceilings. Given the limited height of the apartments, we have demolished the screeds. That quickly saves about five centimeters. Furthermore, we are painting the outside. 
Where necessary, we replace glass and repair grouting." Van Dijke adds: "An important point of attention are the round recesses in the facade. These are needed for the new ventilation system. In consultation with Welstand, we determined where those recesses will come. We cover the recesses again with specially shaped gratings."

View from the atrium, showing the 1975 section on the left and the 1915 section on the right.

Stripping and rebuilding

Van Wijnen stripped the 1975 section down to the concrete shell. In the process, the concrete facade bands remained intact. The characteristic vertical lines also reappear in the facade. Sprangers: "We are building the facades with a sand-lime inner shell and a Sto insulation system with mineral stone strips. The rear of the building section has been opened up and provided with balconies. These are suspended from the facades with a special construction. It was not structurally desirable to drill into the columns." The steel roof structure on the fourth floor is replaced by a hsb roof structure with a pitched roof. The facade of this roof structure on the gallery side will have steel cladding to preserve its industrial appearance.

The new building sections are constructed of steel.

Nothing is the same

Van Wijnen is expanding the section on the side of the complex with a new building section, constructed of a steel structure and hsb elements. This is also where the new stairwell will be located. The elevator will be just down the road in the atrium, the former void. "The old stairwell was demolished," says Van Dijke. "We brought balconies in return, in the same characteristic round shape. Details like that make this work special." Sprangers adds, "The nice thing about this project is that nothing is the same. Every floor and every home is different, each with its own challenges. On top of that, the construction drawings don't always match reality. On projects like this you have to check everything and constantly look ahead. A special way of building, which I personally really like. This summer we are delivering. We enjoy working towards that."