Platform on new construction, renovation, restoration and transformation
On the former Campina site in Woerden, residential district Woerden Centraal was recently completed. The district includes a mix of ground-level houses, five apartment buildings and a parking garage at ground level, realized in phases. Commissioned by Hollands Midden/Bolton Ontwikkeling, SWINN was responsible for the design and elaboration of the main bearing structures. In doing so, the engineering firm faced several challenges.
"All ground-level homes were developed based on the Bolton à la Carte principle," says Erik Verweij, project manager at SWINN. "The design of the houses was entirely in the hands of the residents, who were allowed to determine not only the house width and depth, but also the number of floors and their own color of brick, type of roof and door. We developed and calculated a separate main supporting structure for each house. All homes were constructed from precast concrete walls and hollow-core slabs, which were delivered just-in-time to the project."
The five apartment buildings are built on top of a parking garage. "Like the homes, the apartment buildings are also unique," Verweij says. "For example, one building is leased to a care facility for people with disabilities. This building contains 32 care apartments that can easily be converted to regular apartments in the future. Residential building Le Perron - which concerned the final piece of Woerden Centraal and was to become an 'icon' for the city - was constructed with a complex facade with various cantilevers and setbacks, which placed special demands on the support and stability structure. "In this project, the railroad had no direct impact on the structures. A so-called 'puddle fire' and noise did indirectly. "The facades of the buildings and the parking garage were fireproofed. In this case, the 200-meter-long parking garage also acts as a sound barrier for the homes behind it, as does the glass screen realized on top of the parking garage."
The 200-meter-long parking garage also acts as a sound barrier for the homes behind it, as does a glass screen constructed on top of the parking garage.
The main load-bearing structure for all apartment buildings is composed of a full concrete skeleton. "Whereas the first four apartment buildings were finished with traditional masonry, Le Perron has been given a fully precast concrete sandwich facade whose outer leaves are fitted with stone strips," Verweij explains. "The mix of load-bearing and non-load-bearing elements and the interplay between them were coordinated from the preliminary design with Bolton, Venster Architekten and supplier Hibex in such a way that construction could be carried out without scaffolding and the completion time was limited. All main load-bearing structures were fully worked out in 3D from the final design to the execution-ready design."
