WICONA facades on the De Rotterdam building
Designed by the Dutch Pritzker prize winner Rem Koolhaas. This singular project with WICONA façades, a finalist in the Mies Van der Rohe Awards 2015, has three towers over 150 metres high.
The De Rotterdam building, by the architects Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf and Ellen Van Loon (OMA), has transformed the Dutch port city's skyline. The building, which is part of an ambitious project to refurbish the old port of Wilhelminapier, near Erasmus Bridge and along the banks of the river Maas, seeks to turn the area into a thriving urban zone, in which shops, offices, residential and leisure areas are the stars.
De Rotterdam has been designed as a vertical city comprising three spectacular, 150‐metres interconnected towers. One will house a hotel and offices, the second offices of various sizes – about 60,000 m2 in total ‐ and the third is for residential use, with 240 apartments. They all share a public space – intended for shops and restaurants – on the ground level, as well as the parking area. The towers are 7 meters apart and have a total floor space of approximately 162,000 m2. 44 storeys and towers more than 100 meters high have not been a barrier to the creation of an exceptionally compact building, thanks to the design of a series of overlapping blocks with a common base that forms a link for the different users of the towers. The irregularly stacked blocks also give an impression of constant change and are perceived differently depending on where they are viewed from in the city.
A sustainable building with WICONA facades
All the offices have an A energy rating and a large amount of energy is produced by the solar panels installed on the tower roofs. In addition, there are nine wind turbines and the building's cooling and heating system uses water from the river. The façade solutions make use of the latest systems – the residential tower, for example, has more than 9,200 m2 of WICONA curtain walls. For these façades, a customised solution based on the WICTEC EL unitised curtain wall system was developed, integrating WICLINE 65 windows. For this purpose, more than 27 customised profiles and 35 accessories were created.
The unit connections are based on the triple‐barrier weatherstripping that characterises this system. Openings in the building are parallel‐opening windows that open outwards. Given the verticality of the skyscraper and to maintain an aesthetic in accordance with the architects' requirements, vertical lines have been incorporated in the units themselves, which measure 1800 x 3000 mm. In addition, both vision and opaque areas are made to a design customised for this project.
De Rotterdam was named the “Best tall building in Europe” by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) and was ranked second in the Best Tall Building Worldwide category.
Project: De Rotterdam
Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Architectural firm: OMA
Architects: Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon
Façade Designers: Permasteelisa, Middelburg (offices, hotel and base plinth), TGM, Asten (Residential)
WICONA solutions used: WICTEC EL curtain wall system and WICLINE 65 window system
Photos: Michel van de Kar, Charlie Koolhaas, Ossip van Duivenbode, Philippe Ruault
(Note: Use the Copyright exactly as indicated in the captions for each image in the press kit)
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