Student Experience International | Scaffoldless construction within optimized concept

After the successful completion of Student Experience Nautique Living in Amsterdam-North, client SXP once again chose a construction team with Pleijsier Bouw for the realization of the Student Experience International Amsterdam branch on the Moermanskkade. "The technical elaboration has been perfected here, and that starts with confidence," says project coordinator Harmen Tuinman of Pleijsier Bouw.

Student Experience International Amsterdam targets (international) students and teachers who "desire optimal study conditions," as well as "the opportunity to get fully acquainted with other students and local social life. The project at the redeveloped Minervahaven consists of a new student hotel to be built, equipped with a semi-sunken parking garage, catering section, two commercial spaces and general facilities such as a bicycle shed, study area and laundry. From the first to the eighth floor are 596 equivalent hotel rooms equipped with independent sanitary facilities (7.5 by 3.5 meters).

There will be completely scaffoldless construction.

The building will be constructed in one phase. The shell will be made by means of cast-in-place concrete walls and wide slab floors, on which the residential floors will be tunneled. The facade infill will be made with wood frame elements already factory fitted with aluminum frames. Above the parking garage, on the first floor, there will be a courtyard garden. Tuinman: "It is an O-shaped building, where the inner façade is finished with wood and the outer façade is provided with highly aesthetic solar panels. The outcome of this building concept is that we are building completely scaffold-free. We coordinate all processes, while subcontractors can do a lot in-house."

Basement and first floor are cast in place.

BREEAM 'Excellent'

On the exterior facades will be solar panels from the innovative Danish manufacturer Solarlab; panels that look more like façade finishes than solar cells. There are also solar panels on the roof. Upward, the building decreases in surface area, creating space for accessible roof terraces. "We will provide the hotel rooms with bathroom, kitchen, carpet, sauce on the wall and spackle on the ceiling, ready to live in," he says. On the roof will be a basketball court cum soccer cage, characteristic of all Student Experience buildings." The hotel will be built to BREEAM "Excellent. "Among other things, with a gas-free WKO system at depth, supported by district heating for peaks in hot tap water consumption. Also, the CO₂-emissions from construction production charted in detail."

The interior façade will be finished with wood.

Fully bimmed

All this is the result of a successful collaboration with a committed client in an earlier branch, Nautique Living in Amsterdam-North. The architect was already at the table in the initiation phase; Pleijsier Bouw is also forming a construction team with the client at SEI Amsterdam. "The technical elaboration is perfected here, and that starts with trust," says Tuinman. "The more you can focus on the design as a contractor, the better you can optimize the execution and the final result. The project is fully bimmed, including the installations, facade and finishing." Student Experience International will be occupied with the start of the 2020-2021 academic year. "That is still quite a challenge."