New Hoog Catharijne | Utrecht

Natural stone will play an important role in the finishing of the shopping areas of New Hoog Catharijne. Both inside and outside, natural stone floors, facade walls, plinths and piers will play an important role in the appearance. Natumar is both consultant, engineer, supplier and installation company in the process. "Phase 2 is basically a continuation of the same project delivery for us," says managing director Claudio Felix.

"Our work includes advice on stone types, applications, all the necessary drawing and calculation work, anchoring structures, assembly and supervision all the way through to maintenance advice and impregnation." In the case of New High Catharijne, this head-to-tail guidance has been intensive and multi-year. "The consultancy support in the preliminary phase includes visits to quarries abroad, independent geological research and far-reaching involvement in the selection of materials and applications, with some 13,000 m² of mostly honed Portuguese Beige Classico limestone as floor finish, supplied in four different widths." The façade of the South Passage (former entrance on the Vredenburg side) will be clad both inside and outside with the frost-free marble type Jura Gelb, mounted like a sawtooth. "We also engineered the complete suspension construction and anchoring here. Even the return strips, which are normally glued, are anchored here in a special way."

City room overlooking Catharijnesingel.

Water ornaments
Furthermore, several piers and plinths, including those of the Entrance Building and the City Room, are finished with 450 m² of honed Chinese black granite (Padang Dark). In the interior, the Style Room, located centrally in the Entrance Building, is finished with Beige Classico combined with a Spanish marble (Gris Pulpis) and, in the City Room, accents are set with the high-quality stone types Thassos (Greece) and Azul Monica (Portugal). "Phase 2, delivered by us in early October, uses the same materials as Phase 1. We recently completed the whole, as well as an additional section: Clarenburg. There, too, floor tiles were laid and piers were installed with Azul Monica and Jura Gelb, and an entire staircase section was executed, with the riser running flush with the step and the thickness side receiving a burnt anti-slip treatment. The water ornaments are done in Beige Classico, five centimeters thick with tapered glued-on strips making the whole look even more massive. The edges are 'half-bullnose' rounded."

Solid-looking water ornaments.