The new Collectiegebouw of the Boijmans van Beuningen museum, also known as Depot Boijmans, is a very remarkable building. It was designed by MVRDV, built by BAM Bouw en Techniek, and “dressed-up” by Sorba and Van der Tol. It is a project that combines different aspects of aesthetics, engineering workmanship, airtight solutions, and roofing workmanship.
From June 2020, everyone will be able to experience it, as the 1664 glass panels of the facade of the Boijmans van Beuningen’s new art-depot reflect everything around them and a forest of 75 birch trees turn the building’s roof into a verdant green. The building is already iconic in Rotterdam, a city renowned for its daring architecture.
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The Depot’s design is a curved sphere consisting of concrete prefab elements on the outside. Each “ring” is made up of 64 panels, and the radius of the building is less than 40 meters at the bottom and 60 meters at the top. Facade builder SORBA has been responsible for the engineering, supply, and installation of the 1664 3D-shaped glass panels. Not just making the design was a challenge. Innovative solutions were also needed to adhere to the specific requirements of the design, safety, and making the construction air and watertight.
Both the mirror-facade at the front as well as the birch forest on the roof are open structures. The layers that lie underneath and behind them allow these components to “perform” optimally.
The facade was built using cast concrete elements that were isolated with black Kooltherm K15 boards made by Kingspan. They did not only have to be installed airtight; they also needed to offer protection against fire penetration. All the horizontal and vertical seams in between the boards have been sealed with a special tape.
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Sorba did not just supply the mirrors, but also supplied the curtain walls, window frames, and especially the 3D entrance doors. Some of these weigh 1,500 kilos and open from the facade to the outside. All these details can have potential air leaks in their construction and therefore needed to be properly sealed.
Arjan Verheuvel, the project’s Technical Advisor, says, “We carried out the air sealing by making a double sealing with Butyl and EPDM in combination with our product HERTALAN® EASY STICK GS. It is a self-adhesive EPDM strip with a Mu value of 170,000, making it virtually air and gastight. We used this tape for making all details airtight: taping all of the bolt heads, installing the suspension brackets, and we used it also at all window frame openings.
The main advantage of EPDM is that it is an extremely flexible product that can be easily shaped for such details.”
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