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Woody Builders, part of JAJO, is building a very special office building for De Vries Scheepsbouw in Makkum. The 2,820 m² building is constructed entirely of wood, has three floors and will be built detachable and reusable. “A beautiful building with great ambitions.”
De Vries Scheepsbouw Makkum builds exclusive seagoing quality motor yachts under the Feadship brand name at this location. Jack van den Broek, commercial manager of Woody Builders: “I know Bas Lamers, head of the business office at Kienhuis Bouwmanagement, from the past. He saw on LinkedIn that we are engaged in wood building and asked me if such a wooden building is detachable. After all, that was a hard requirement for the construction of a new building for De Vries Scheepsbouw. The fact that it is made of wood and therefore even more sustainable was a nice bonus.” The new building will be built between two dock halls. Should a desire arise in the future to rearrange the site or expand further, the client wants to be able to relocate the building.
After the preliminary process, which Van den Broek undertook, the project was handed over to project coordinator Patrick de Ruijter. “Last September we were able to start. Quite special, because you are doing structural work at a location where very specialized construction is taking place. Despite the distance - we ourselves are based in Nieuwkuijk in the province of Brabant - the cooperation is very good. We get along well with each other and expectations are clear. Fortunately, we have good executives who live a little closer.”
The client itself directed a number of ancillary contractors, such as interior designers and installers. De Ruijter: “We were asked to make a turnkey building. We do the structural work ourselves, but we also have to hire external contractors for the finishing and installations. That involves a lot of people, so it's better to hire a party from the area.”
Meanwhile, the building is just about finished. The main load-bearing structure is Glulam (glued laminated timber) of spruce, with floors of CLT (cross laminated timber). The timber frame walls are finished with thermally modified Northern European softwood in two colors.
Van den Broek: “It has become a beautiful building with great ambitions. The skeleton looks super slick, but also the installations and finishing have been well thought out. It will be a very pleasant building to work in. And building with wood provides another advantage: wood stores nitrogen, which is positive for possible subsidies.”
Woody Builders is building in Makkum according to the Woody Office concept. The building has a fixed core with freely divisible spaces. De Ruijter: “That fits well with the working method of De Vries Scheepsbouw. The building serves the construction of a yacht and that takes about five years. After that time, the needs of a project team may have changed and it is possible to adapt the building accordingly.”
About timber construction, people often ask if it is fire-safe. Van den Broek can answer that positively as well: “This way of building is actually very fire-safe, the number of fire safety measures is no higher for a wooden building than for a comparable building made of concrete or steel.”
