172
X3
Project
Along the A20 highway at Maassluis in the Netherlands
a new innovative international head office, R&D
centre and production hall for the Lely group has been
implemented. Lely is a Dutch family business that offers
robotic products and services to the agricultural sector.
The new building, designed by Consort Architects, is
expected to be completed by mid-2013. The project
includes a warehouse with parking space on the roof
and three connecting office buildings with showrooms,
conference rooms and a company restaurant.
The project illustrates the power of integrated design in
a special way. From the crawl space up to the parking
deck, at every level of the building it is evident that the
various disciplines in the design and construction team
have worked together closely for the best, most durable
and fastest results.
Lely has high sustainability ambitions for this project,
ranging from the integration of the total complex into the
existing area to putting up bat- and bird-nest housings
on the factory hall. The far-reaching commitment
to sustainability was awarded by the DGBC with
the highest BREEAM certificate (‘Outstanding’, the
maximum 5 stars) for the design of the production
hall. This level has not previously been achieved on
the European mainland by a building with an industrial
function. The Office buildings achieved the designation
‘Excellent’ (4 stars).
Design
The warehouse (22,500 m
2
) was designed as a
“platform building”, eliminating the need for expensive
lowered loading docks with a pile supported concrete
floor. The elevated business floor, consisting of hollow
core slabs, was completely prefabricated, just like
the rest of the building. This enabled a very high
construction rate which can be phased “horizontally”.
While on one side the pilecaps were still being placed,
the roof sheets were already being mounted on the
other side of the building.
The prefabricated pilecaps were carefully engineered
with simple connections of the cap to the foundation
piles, foundation beams, hollow core slabs and
columns. The pilecap dimensions of 2.4 m by
2.4 m were not just determined by the structural
considerations, they are also a multiple of the width of
the connecting hollow core slabs. This design has led to
a quick assembly process.
The grid distances of the concrete columns in the
industrial building were tailored to the wishes of the
client. After an extensive study of roof variants, a
structure with TT-slabs spanning 20 m was chosen.
With a shorter span (10.8 m) of the prestressed
roofbeams the number of columns on the production
floor was sufficiently minimised. The columns are
sandwiched into the prefabricated pilecaps at the
bottom. Each column plays a part in the stability of the
hall; there is no bracing.
The office building adjacent to the warehouse is made
up of a steel main supporting structure with hollow core
slabs in between. The steel trusses are raised above
ground level so that the freight cars can pass under the
building. The diagonals, columns and connections in the
trusses were designed with close consultation between
the architect and the structural engineer. The trusses,
along with the steel staircases, provide the stability of
the buildings. A saving of the total amount of material
used was obtained through the use of trusses as the
main supporting structure.
Calculations
Scia Engineer software was used for the main
calculations of the structure. With Scia Engineer it is
possible to create fantastic 3D models. However, we
have chosen to make the calculations of this project in
such a way that the full structure could be represented
with simple 2D models of the structural components.
The power of Scia Engineer is that it is possible to
calculate the entire building with a few 2D models of the
trusses and beams. With this, we were able to present
the structure in a clear and concise manner in the
calculations.
Software: Scia Engineer
Industrial Hall and Offices Lely - Maassluis, The Netherlands
Nomination Category 3: Industrial Buildings and Plants
Nomination Category 3: Industrial Buildings and Plants
