Platform on new construction, renovation, restoration and transformation
Forty relatively standard prefab skylights—forty times the same challenge, you might think. Yet the client for the new train depot in Haarlem asked Hakvoort Daglicht for something special. “Can you also make a lampshade under each skylight?” Although the answer was a simple ‘yes,’ the task was anything but simple.
“For the project, we manufactured and assembled forty ready-to-install skylights measuring 3.27 by 3.27 meters at our factory,” begins Aron Regeling of Hakvoort Daglicht. “The upstands and round lampshades were also incorporated into our prefabrication process. The lampshades have a diameter of approximately 1.80 meters and a height of about 50 centimeters. They are made of translucent polycarbonate and mounted within the opening beneath the skylight.”
“A prefabricated skylight from our factory is a self-supporting product that is installed as a cantilevered structure,” explains Regeling. “The curved skylights for the train car hall consist of coated aluminum profiles and are fitted with 16-mm, 7-wall polycarbonate cavity panels. Polycarbonate multi-wall sheets are not only highly insulating, lightweight, and translucent, but also strong and impact-resistant.” According to Regeling, safety is just as important as aesthetics in this project. “Every skylight is certified for fall-through safety for maintenance purposes. This ensures a safe and sustainable situation on the roof immediately after installation.”
Hakvoort was the first company in the Netherlands to bring a completely groundbreaking prefab skylight concept to market. According to Regeling, the strength of this project lay primarily in the preparation. ‘We handle engineering, work planning, and production in-house. Before series production, we built a complete mock-up, including the lampshade. This allowed Visser & Smit Bouw to visually and technically assess the result early on and ensure quality. Then, during implementation, it became a logistical puzzle: how do you get those forty complete prefab elements to the right spot with as little transportation and space as possible, while minimizing disruption to other construction work?“
Hakvoort Daglicht developed reusable scaffolding frames on which two prefabricated skylights were stacked each time and which were then transported by truck. “By hoisting the scaffolding frames onto the roof, we were able to quickly install the skylights in their final positions. This sped up the entire process of installing roof panels and removing safety nets at the construction site. The roof was sealed sooner, reducing the risk of leaks during subsequent work underneath. It also allowed the roofer to install the insulation and roofing material without interruption. Furthermore, the skylight covers did not need to be hung from below on the construction site. With our prefabricated approach, we minimize installation time and the number of steps required on the roof. This reduces the risk of failure costs and keeps the construction site efficient and organized.”
Prefabricated construction also offers advantages in the long term. “If maintenance is needed in fifteen or twenty years, the polycarbonate sheets can be replaced relatively easily,” says Regeling, who adds that the efficient installation was also the result of a very pleasant collaboration with Visser & Smit Bouw throughout the entire process—from consulting, engineering, and work planning all the way through production and installation.
