Dutch firm de Architekten Cie. have revealed their design for the Galileo Reference Centre, a new data collection center for the Galileo satellite system in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. Primarily housing office space and computer rooms, the center has been designed as a highly efficient and resilient building which can be adapted into the future.
The structurally lightweight building sits adjacent to a small bay of sand dunes in the Noordwijk Space Business Park. Wildlife and nature are brought into the building through green terraces aligned to the main functional areas, and the connection between indoor and outdoor is maintained through a "social lobby" which opens up the ground floor. Also functioning as the main circulatory space, the lobby distributes users throughout the building and provides the functional services for the first floor.
The life-cycle of the building was a driving factor of the design, Primarily comprised of wood, a replenishable resource, the building utilizes prefabricated and composite structures easily disassembled and reassembled. The benefits of using prefabrication, and specifically the pine of the main structure, first floor and roof are threefold. Firstly, the structure is light enough to rest upon the sand; secondly, the structural columns are able to double as wooden partition elements; and lastly, the modular design allows maximum reduction of waste.
The facade features a singular repeated component in three different transparencies, from fully opaque to fully transparent. This provides necessary permeability and enclosure in required areas of the building. The future-proofing of the building is exhibited here again, as the interchangeability of the panels will allow the facade to be adapted to internal configuration changes as the building's program changes.
Alongside the minimization of material wastage, the building is designed to be highly energy conscious. A series of measurements determined that it will be 35% more efficient than currently required by Dutch building regulations. Construction of the building has been accelerated due to the necessity of its completion and is due to be completed in July 2017.
Architects
Location
Kapteynstraat 1, 2201 BB Noordwijk, The NetherlandsArchitect in Charge
Pero PuljizDesign Team
Eric van Noord, Igor Sladoljev, Jeanne Leung, Sander Moerman, Boris van Gorkom, Nico Bos, Andrew Page, Benjamin Russis, Audrey FischerVisualizations
Area
1500.0 m2Project Year
2016Photographs
ELEMENT, de Architekten Cie.Architects
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