All-Glass Dome for Mosque in Haarlem

The architect Fedde Reeskamp, from the ‘Architectenkamer’ in Haarlem haddesigned a mosque for the client ‘Islamitische Stichting Nederland Selimiye’ inHaarlem. The design consists of a blockwork mosque with a dome on top, visuallyapparent in silhouette of the mosque. He came with this enquiry for a dome toOctatube. The contrast between the solid building block-shape and the dome on topled to the suggestion to have the dome made in glass, out of its extreme contrast.Octatube designed a self-supporting dome of solely insulated glass panels, withoutany frame or structure. Thanks to a hidden tensile system with corner joints, thecomplete dome is a reliable structure of glass and tensile spokes

Transparent Cubical Glass Building in Madrid

An ultimately transparent glass building in almost cubical form of 30x30x21 m, tofunction as the future entrance building of the Santander Bancopolis complexsouthwest of Madrid. Conceptual design by architect Alfonso Millanes and structuraldesign by Octatube. The structure is composed of ultra slender cable stayed tubularcolumns and trusses placed in a grid of 5m and cladded with insulated glass madefrom fully tempered outer panels and heat strengthened laminated inner panels. Sizeof all glass panels is 2.5 x 2.5 m². The insulated glass ensures additional stabilisationof the overall enveloping structure. The roof panels are partly twisted to obtain afluent slope for drainage. The roof gutters are positioned at 2.5 m from the roof edge,thus creating a free glass edge. The side walls of the gutters are made of insulatedglass panels. The glass type chosen is ‘extra-white’, emphasizing the glass cube as asparkling crystal in the landscape

The Cold Bent Glass Roof of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London

The Victoria & Albert Museum in London was recently extended with its Medievaland Renaissance Galleries. Designed by MUMA Architects (London), an existingoutside courtyard has been transformed by the addition of a glass roof into a lightfilled exhibition space.Due to the existing geometry of the surrounding buildings, andseveral boundary conditions set by the architects, the surface of the roof could not beflat. Instead, it had to be twisted into an undevelopable hypar surface. Pre-engineeringby Dewhurst Macfarlane (London) indicated the possibility of achieving this surfacewith cold bent glass panels. The experience of Octatube with this kind of surfaces aswell as the development of a theory of cold bent glass panels, transformed thepossibility into a reality. A further complication of the design rested in the fact thatthe load bearing construction of the glass roof panels was unusually long, triplelaminated glass beams. To provide a suitable fail safe concept for the glass roof, itwas insufficient to consider only the separate members of the construction. Instead, todescribe the fail safe behaviour of the structure, all parts had to be considered to worktogether during an emergency situation

Design and Engineering of a Theatre Façade in Vlaardingen

In 2004/2005 a design of a theatre extension in Vlaardingen, ‘de Stadsgehoorzaal’was made by architect Cees Spanjers, Mick Eekhout and Octatube Engineering.This façade contains the lobby at the first floor. The façade had to obtain acharacteristic design in the townscape. The structure of roof and floor in steelenabled the façade to be independent. However, the architect required a solutionwhere the visually lightweight structure would be independent and wrapped aroundboth left and right corner. This wrapping caused interesting problems which weresolved by a tubular frame structure on top, bottom and both ends and a fish bellytruss at the both corners. In doing so the glass façade could obtain an extremelightweight composition

Development of a Super Slim Façade System for InHolland Polytechnic, Delft

The initial conceptual ‘wild idea’ for the INHolland project by architect Rijk Rietveld,New York, was elaborated through different design brainstorms towards a radicalinnovative system for ultra-slim glass façades. In this façade system insulated glasspanels of a depth of maximum 50 mm are integrated with internal pre-stressedstructural composite cables, stabilising the façade against wind forces. Dead weightto be taken over by vertical deadweight rods in between the vertical silicone seamsbetween the panels. The insulated glass panels are sealed by composite spacer frames.Many different solitary tests were done with the sealing and the carbon fibrecomponents, with adhesion of silicone sealant on the carbon fibre frames and on theperforation of the carbon fibre used through the frames. In the actual engineeringphase structural analysis was performed and tests on several levels were executed.The composite frames were substituted by conventional metal frames. Due to therefusal by the glass panel manufacturer to supply a guarantee on inadequate numberof tests with inadequate quality, the integrated system had to be changed into a duosystemwith internal pre-stressed cables and integrated dead weight suspension rods.The façade had to keep in pace with the progress on site

Design and Build of a Warped Tram Station Roof in Delft

In 1992 Walter Lockefeer and Mick Eekhout designed an office for the GlassAssociation in Gouda with a flamboyant glass envelope, which ended as runner-up inan architectural competition. The design was classical in architectural sense andfuturistic in technical sense: it contained a pre-stressed glass membrane. In 2002Octatube introduced the use of twisted tempered glass panels in the realization of theCity Hall of Alphen aan den Rijn NL. Since then further research of the structuralbehaviour of twisted glass panels has been carried out by Dries Staaks, leading to aprofound knowledge about its quantitative behaviour as well as quantitative approachon stresses and stability. The latter is referred to as the “Law of Staaks”. On the basisof the developed theory the application of twisted panels has been extended andproven to be a valuable contribution in order to realise free form twisted glassenvelopes. Although the theory was investigated and set up after the first applicationin Alphen, it was only after establishment of this very theory that several buildingscould be provided with accurately engineered twisted roofs and flat roofs with twistedparts, where the glass panels were even insulated / laminated glass panels. The 1992design, which was not chosen out of disbelief concerning the innovative state of itsglass façade, could be entirely built today from the trustworthy glass technology. Theintegral innovation approach as a bridge between fundamental research, technicaldevelopment and application design, each with its own habits and peculiarities, but inmutual understanding and support, shows that integral incremental developments onmany levels pay off and produce new technologies for use in architecture. Thiscontribution ends with the application of a glass roof for a warped glass roof surface,making use of the maximum cold warping possibilities of laminated glass panels

Het Geldernsch-Nierskanaal: hoe een recht kanaal gaat meanderen als gevolg van kwel

Aan het eind van de 18de eeuw is tussen de rivieren de Niers in Duitsland en de Maas in Nederland het Geldernsch-Nierskanaal gegraven, om piekafvoeren in het benedenstroomse deel van de Niers af te vlakken. Het Duitse deel van het kanaal is in de loop van de tijd gekanaliseerd gebleven door oeverbeschoeiing. Opvallend is dat het Nederlandse deel, dat de vrije loop werd gelaten, actief is gaan meanderen. Onderzoek laat zien dat kwel de aanzet gaf voor het meanderen

Wat doet een beek zelf na een project van beekherstel?

Al 25 jaar voeren waterbeheerders projecten uit waarbij laglandbeken een kronkelende loop terugkrijgen. Maar wat gebeurt er precies met de vorm van zo'n beek na uitvoering van het project? Hoe lang duurt de aanpassingsperiode en welke factoren hebben invloed? De conclusies van een onderzoek in de Lunterse Beek