Comfort, functionality and design come together in climate ceilings Booking.com

In the Booking.com City Campus in Amsterdam, sustainability, working comfort and appearance come together in a unique way. For example, in the MeandRo-V® activated expanded metal climate ceilings from Inteco, which combine excellent heating and cooling with an industrial look and considerable material savings.

Inteco was involved in the impressive new building back in 2017, to help think about the heating and cooling of the office spaces and (later) break-outs. "In a construction team with UNStudio and the Installation Combination ODE, we inventoried how we could realize a functional and stylish climate ceiling within the extensive volumes, the large glass areas and the vision of architect and client," says Paul Ruijgrok, director of Inteco. "Due to the large glass surfaces, heat radiates inside. Combined with the high internal heat load from the computers, lighting and employees, significant cooling capacity was required. Our MeandRo-V® expanded metal climate ceiling can provide this without any problems. In addition, this climate ceiling meets the aesthetic requirements perfectly."

Booking.com and UNStudio envisioned an industrial look, with as few band grids in sight as possible. "We found a solution to this, by mounting the ceiling panels with an inverted band grid and joints," Ruijgrok says. "Several mock-ups were set up in our factory, showing the climate ceiling in different versions." Features of expanded metal are its light weight and open structure, he says. This allows excellent climate control with relatively little material. "The material is not perforated, but pulled apart (stretched). Inteco hereby offers the unique possibility to also implement the climate ceiling as an active climate ceiling. At the architect's request, we realized a permeability of up to 82%. This makes the ceiling open in certain viewing directions, while from other directions a closed ceiling is experienced. This creates special light reflection and dynamics."

In total, Inteco produced and installed nearly 40,000 m2 of climate ceilings. Assembly took no less than 2 years, with 20 employees working on the project at peak times. For example, to align the climate ceilings with the steel columns, says Ruijgrok. "On the façade side, the climate ceilings were also set at specific angles to ensure a neat transition between ceiling and glass. To prevent run-ins, the entire project was worked out in advance in Revit."