Wooden flower is the eye-catcher of new casino

The most eye-catching element, however, is the "wooden flower," developed, manufactured and assembled by Blumer-Lehmann AG, the Swiss specialist in wood construction. 

The new Holland Casino in Venlo is designed like a flower with a skin, a skeleton, the metabolism and a brain. The PV film on the roof, the green facade, the bio-based insulation and the sequins with underlying LED lighting form the skin, while a wooden construction in the shape of a flower is the skeleton. This "wooden flower," made with about 300 composite beams, forms a 55 m by 45 m roof, is 25 m high and is supported by a 3.2 m diameter "stem.

One point of contact from design to assembly

The intelligence behind this work of art comes from the company Blumer-Lehmann of Gossau, Switzerland. "We are the market leader in timber construction and use our experience to turn architects' inspiration into real wooden solutions. Every project starts with an architect's idea and we then take care of the technical planning, engineering, production and assembly. In many cases, we even take responsibility from project development to finished building as a pilot contractor. The earlier we are involved in a project, the easier it is to steer the design and the greater the basis for successfully realizing that project," says project developer and engineer Jephtha Schaffner. "For example, we were contacted during the design phase to work with the architect to further develop his idea for the new Holland Casino to be built in Venlo and to realize a wooden roof structure with a very unusual design as a flower. When Laudy Bouw en Ontwikkeling was commissioned to realize this building, we were approached again in April 2019 to engineer, produce and assemble the wooden structure as a subcontractor. Thereby, it was crucial for the stability of the building that the entire construction was worked out to the millimeter. Exactly one year later, the 'wooden flower' was completely finished."