Special stairs with nests at Academy Ten

In Utrecht, the new Academy Ten building is completely finished. The high school has about 1,600 students, who were given an inspiring environment where they can feel right at home. The building consists of so-called home units situated around a central space. There are five layers in total, connected by stairs from EeStairs. The stairs are beautifully finished with wood and glass balustrades. 

Stairs within a school building with so many students obviously need to be robust and long-lasting. Leave that to Ee-Stairs. It produces high-quality stairs with excellent performance. In addition, it is of utmost importance that the stairs meet the requirements of the architect. EeStairs therefore works closely with them, after which the entire production and installation process is controlled. The stairs meet the highest international quality and safety standards. The atrium involves 350,777 meters of hand rail and 33,906 meters of steel for the stairs, nests and fences. 

Workstations in balustrades

"It was a broad job we were asked to deliver," says project supervisor Johan Floor. "At Academy Ten, it is striking how many different staircases are in it. All sides and floors of the building are connected through the central atrium. It is a complex building with many height differences. The nests float above the atrium, where they are suspended from 30-millimeter hanging rods. There, there are also custom-made balustrades that incorporate workstations. The architect had drawn out quite a lot of detail and we kept those wishes as much as possible."

Great accuracy

Because of the height differences and complexity, EeStairs chose to place certain elements early in the process so that use could be made of the available cranes. This way there was enough space to place the floating stairs, for example. In advance, everything was worked out in a BIM model. Contractor WAM&VanDuren coordinated that and is also the client of EeStairs. Floor: "The accuracy was great. Everything fitted in from the drawing. That ensured, for example, that we could handle the steel builder's connections one to one. This way of working gave peace of mind. As a result, we had more room for finishing."

From heavy steel to wood

The stairs are finished with oak treads and lots of plywood. The material used is very diverse for EeStairs: from heavy steel to wood for the furniture. Floor particularly likes that breadth of use on this project. "Our company started as a steel fabricator and at some point we started making stairs as well. Now we make everything related to that, such as the workstations in the railings. The production area for wood in the factory is now as large as for steel. Today we supply the complete package."