Aluminum composite facade panels in all shapes and sizes

"Our client was assembly company Welmecon," says account manager René Janssen of Aldowa Composites. "They made the basic drawing work. We translated this into CNC milling work. On that basis, we manufactured and delivered the aluminum composite facade panels."

Composite ideally suited

"Initially, the facades were to be executed in a different material," Janssen continues. "During discussions with the architect and Welmecon, it quickly became clear that composite lent itself ideally to this project. With aluminum composite, you can realize virtually any shape, very sleek and in any color. Even the facade parts that have curves as well as slanting sides, and therefore had to be rolled in 3D, were no problem for this material. To show the possibilities of aluminum composite, we made several mock-ups."

Prefabrication and just-in-time delivery

Production of the total of more than 6,000 square meters of facade panels meant a lead time of six months in practice. By prefabricating the panels and delivering them ready-made to the building site, Aldowa Composites kept maximum control over quality and planning. Janssen: "We followed Welmecon's assembly schedule, which meant that we produced the panels per building and delivered them just-in-time. On site, they were mounted directly on the structure."

Specialist handiwork

Some of the façade panels could not be engineered and produced by Aldowa Composites until the last minute. Especially with the round-shaped facade panels, this put considerable pressure on the production department. Janssen explains, "You have to imagine that these panels sometimes consist of about eight to ten sub-panels. Assembling them is time-consuming, specialized handiwork. The fact that we delivered everything on schedule as much as possible is largely due to the dedication and skill of our production staff. We are proud of that."  

Project info

'Over 10 kilometers of pipes'
Commissioned by technical installation company Warmtebouw, Lenting Techniek BV realized the plumbing of Amsterdam The Style Outlets. A sizeable job, which mainly required logistical attention.

"We installed the sewerage, water mains and rainwater drainage for the complex," says Lenting's Senior Project Manager Nico Hielkema. "We also installed a large pressurization system, and for the firefighting system we supplied the reels and powder extinguishers. We also installed items such as pantries, toilets, sinks, grease traps and pressure boosters in a number of stores." The size of the project, some 300 m long and covering more than 19,000 m², was the main focus. Lenting processed 3,020 m of rainwater pipe, 4,145 m of sewer pipe and 3,350 m of water main pipe. "That adds up to over 10 km of pipes," says Hielkema. "So big walking distances. Moreover, we had to transport everything from the parking garage to the stores at street level. This required logistical preparation and coordination. Now that all the installations are in, we can only be proud. Nice that we contributed to this sensational project."

A vibrant cladding 

On the architect's design drawings, it was perfectly clear how the facade cladding of Amsterdam The Style Outlets was to be. Yet it was still a tremendous challenge to make the design also feasible. "In 2016 we first bent over this project and made the budget; in December 2019 we started on the construction," says Mark van der Linde, Welmecon's project manager. "Around November of this year, we completed the work."

To understand all the facets of the cladding, Welmecon first made a mock-up. The mock-up gave reason to replace the polyester of the white frames with an aluminum composite, while maintaining the intended appearance. Once the client and architect agreed, the process of engineering, production and assembly followed. "The frames form the interior and exterior facades of the 144 stores that will soon be located in Sugar City," says Van der Linde. "These look the same, but in reality they are all different. That took a lot of energy from our Work Preparation and Production departments."

In the process, Amsterdam The Style Outlets has been fully worked out in BIM. The facade specialist explains, "Where in the past small errors were solved in the work, now bottlenecks already emerge in the drawing process. That took some getting used to. But after completing this project, we are seasoned BIM users!"