A specialist in complex steel structures for 25 years

The 'bulb canopy' of Utrecht station, the futuristic platform roofs at Arnhem and Utrecht stations, the A'DAM Tower and Pontsteiger in Amsterdam. These are just a few of the iconic projects that Buiting Staalbouw is involved in. For 25 years the steel construction company has been a committed partner for the engineering, production and assembly of complex steel constructions. A good time to look back and look ahead.

Buiting's story starts in 1996, when Louis Buiting began making steel structures. Success did not take long to come. Responding to the growing market, the company quickly expanded and invested in its organization and automation. To this day, this natural growth continues. Currently, Buiting has two production locations, in Broekland and in Almelo. Buiting also has an engineering location in Schagen and acquired Metaalbouw Vloet in Mill in 2020. All together, 150 specialized and committed employees are working daily on the most diverse and complex constructions.

Long-term relationships

"Our strength lies in our way of working together," says Buiting's project manager Jurgen Exterkate. "We go for long-term relationships with our clients, based on trust and knowledge sharing. In many cases, we are involved in the preliminary stages of a project to help think about a responsible and efficient way to build. Themes such as future-proofing and Total Cost of Ownership increasingly play a role in this. Construction companies are increasingly responsible for the maintenance of a structure for years to come. So it makes sense to come up with a solution that will last and require little maintenance. In this way, a higher investment on the front end can ultimately lead to savings."

Investing in people

Another strength of Buiting concerns its employees. "All our own people who can conceive and create complex products," Exterkate said. "Within our organization, we like to invest in their professional growth and personal development. We also find it important that our employees have the right mentality. Social, committed and solution-oriented. That already starts in our engineering department. In close cooperation with principal structural engineers and consultancies, we give constructive substance, literally and figuratively, to the objects to be built. We make all steel constructions at our own production sites. We also handle on-site assembly ourselves."

From tunnel formwork to bulb canopy

The complexity of the products realized by Buiting is mainly related to form and structural properties. But also with the location of the project and/or the construction to be placed. Exterkate: "For the high-speed railway line, for example, we made the tunnel formwork, equipped with cooling, working platforms and a specially developed under-box. A large and challenging job. Another imaginative project we contributed to is the striking AFAS Experience Center. Or the Deltion College in Zwolle, a huge complex of ten educational buildings with lots of steel and glass. But also the futuristic-looking platform roofing and footbridge at Arnhem station, which won the national steel award in 2013. This work served as a spin-off for more unusual station canopies, including the, to many, familiar 'spherical canopy' between Utrecht Central Station and shopping center Hoog Catharijne. We modeled, produced and assembled this 3,600-square-meter steel canopy, which incorporates circular pneumatic ETFE cushions." 

Reusing steel is the future

"The high level of quality that we have established over the past 25 years serves as a starting point for the coming decades," Exterkate continued. "We will continue to focus on the knowledge and craftsmanship of our own people. At the same time, we are firmly committed to current themes such as sustainability and circularity. By using solar panels on our production halls, we generate our own energy. We are also working on ways to reuse steel without melting it down. For example, we already made a bridge out of used steel elements. That, especially in combination with the large amount of information you can extract from current modeling programs, offers interesting prospects for the future."