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Glass Inside is realizing an impressive full-glass void around the new spiral staircase in Aurora Amsterdam. Floor-high glass walls are being installed from the first to the eighth floor, with as few visible profiles as possible. Director Jelle van Paassen talks about the project.
Glass Inside emphatically positions itself as a total partner for everything to do with glass. The company is involved in projects at an early stage and thinks along with architects and clients. “We advise and deliver. From idea to assembly, the whole picture,” says Van Paassen. “For clients, we are a single point of contact for everything with glass.” This broad role makes it possible to deliver custom work, even when standard solutions do not fit within the design or technical requirements.
According to Van Paassen, Glass Inside's strength lies in its range breadth. “We always think from the glass, rather than the system. The question is always: what can be done with glass?” he explains. Where other parties are stuck with maximum heights, widths or profiles, Glass Inside looks for feasible solutions outside those frameworks.
This approach is also reflected in Aurora, with heavy windows, minimal profiles and high requirements for fire resistance, sound and safety. In the atrium, the new spiral staircase forms the spatial core. “Around this staircase runs a void from the first through eighth floors. That void is completely enclosed by glass,” says Van Paassen. Glass Inside realizes here full-glass walls from floor to ceiling. The profiles are concealed as much as possible in the rear construction. The panes are not framed and are glued structurally to create the most transparent image possible.
The requirements for the glass are high. Van Paassen: “The wall must be fire-resistant with classification EI60. In addition, the glass must be soundproof and fall-through resistant. The glass panes are almost 4 centimeters thick, composed of 2×10 mm thermally toughened safety glass with an 18 mm hydrogel fire-resistant interlayer. As a result, the glass in dimensions of 1,600 by 2,900 mm weighs about 350 kg each.”
Along parts of the stairs there will not be a high glass wall, but a glass balustrade of about 1.20 meters high. This balustrade will also be incorporated into the floor, in an aluminum profile. “The built-in profiles of wall and balustrade should be aligned as tightly as possible.” Of course, this can only be done in good cooperation with the contractor, who is preparing the base.
The transportation and assembly of the heavy glass panels presented a significant challenge. “In consultation with the contractor, we therefore drew up a logistics plan. It was too complex to supply the glass via the atrium, so we are now going to hoist it in for each floor via the facade. Then a glass robot drives the panes to the right place.”
For Van Paassen, the pride at Aurora is mainly in the cooperation. “We are not even halfway through yet, but I find the cooperation with Van Wijnen very pleasant,” he says. Good communication is decisive here, he says. “Saying things as they are, directly and clearly. And then look together: how do we work together on the solution?” That team spirit also applies to suppliers. “We really do this together.”
