An integral success story: from sandy plain to American neighborhood

About two years ago, from the station in Almere-Poort, you looked out over a sandy plain. Now you look out over a piece of America in Almere. The new neighborhood of New Brooklyn is beginning to take shape. The Brooklyn-inspired district is the result of an intensive integral building process. Schans Installations Veenendaal was one of the cooperating parties. Fred Uijterwaal, project manager at Schans Installations, explains what makes this project so special.

As part of the Van Losser Installation Group, Schans Installations has specialized in installing installation techniques in residential construction. The Van Losser Installation Group has several companies throughout the country, including on the New Brooklyn project. "There were many parties involved in this project. Schans Installations installed the entire plumbing system for all owner-occupied and rental homes in the neighborhood. Then we are talking about water pipes, sewerage, plumbing, heating and also the drainage of rainwater," Uijterwaal says.

For the New Brooklyn project, all parties cooperated in an integrated construction process. There was an organized collaboration in which all aspects of the process were coordinated. In this integrated construction process, all co-makers and partners were involved from the very first phase. "There may have been few technically complex components, but by thinking along in the design phase, you can ease the construction process. By engaging together as much as possible, we were able to eliminate problems before construction of the project even began."

Puzzling

Schans Installations was already looking at the architect's initial drawings. "The appearance of every house is different, of course. Then it's puzzling where to place the radiators. Where are the doors, where and how big are the windows?" Working together is important for all co-makers to avoid later problems. "All the houses have different models, so you can't copy one installation everywhere. So we also had to think about installing the air ducts, without saddling the structural engineer with an impossible task," Uijterwaal says.

Together you are stronger

Because of the high demand for housing, many homes must be built quickly. Uijterwaal says he likes working with co-makers. "We need each other in construction. Together we are stronger in the market. We always want to deliver quality and sustainability, you need partners for that these days. This way you can switch quickly."