Tectum Group participating in the construction project of the century

Belgium's largest roofing company collaborates on site of the century

Vanaf augustus nemen opdrachtgever en aannemers van de Oosterweelverbinding samen hun intrek in een gezamenlijke werkplek. Ze verbouwden daartoe de voormalige Hederschool tot comfortabele werkplek voor hun medewerkers die bij het Oosterweelproject betrokken zijn. Met de vernieuwingvan het 8.600m² grote dakoppervlak verzekert Tectum Group alvast dat het team de werf droog kan aansturen.

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Anyone who thinks of infrastructure works in Antwerp says Oosterweel. The construction site of the century will significantly improve traffic safety and quality of life in and around the city. A team of more than 650 experts is currently working on a unique and innovative project on the right bank. Today these specialists from the various parties involved in the project are scattered over various locations in Antwerp, close to or further away from the construction site. This will change as of August. Then the project teams of client Lantis and contractors TM ROCO, OCOTECH and Rinkoniên OWK will move to Galjoenstraat. Together, Lantis and TM ROCO converted the former Heder School there into the "shipyard shack of the century.

Logical track

Shared housing is a logical track because it makes working more efficient. Choosing to repurpose a school building is less so. "We weighed several options," opens Werner Aenspeck, construction team manager for the Oosterweel campus. "Renting existing offices or building a site village are perhaps the most obvious ones when you look at such large construction projects." Near the site, however, a school building had become vacant. "Since September 2023, the children of that school have been in a brand new campus just a few miles from the wharf. The care needs of these children - a lot of them suffer from respiratory problems or need special care - were difficult to reconcile with a busy construction site in progress. Therefore, together with the city, we searched for a new location for these children," explains Roland Van Driel of the builder Lantis. What remained was a school building, located close to the construction site, with a floor area of 9,800 m². "Pretty soon we were on the track to transform this location into yard offices. We would recover as much of the existing building material as possible, and sustainability was also our starting point for other choices," Van Driel continues.

Austere and functional concept

Once everyone has moved into the yard shack of the century, more than 650 Oosterweel specialists will work together there. They will have 644 equipped workstations - divided between landscape offices, smaller group spaces and individual offices -, 67 flex spaces, 40 meeting rooms, bell and meeting pods. Two multipurpose rooms, an auditorium and bistro complete the building program.

Archiles architects' design team weighed and weighed to come up with a budget-conscious but sustainable concept. "We respected the existing building structure to the maximum. The entrance area is accented with a steel structure and part of the exterior facades are painted to achieve a uniform appearance. Internally, we removed all the techniques and part of the interior walls. We decorated the public areas with the entrance area and the auditorium with a little more attention to appearance. The offices were conceived mainly functionally. For example, the floors are mainly finished with circular carpet tiles and the ceilings are a mix of suspended system ceilings and the existing ceilings finished with an acoustic spray plaster and techniques in sight. We set up some of the informal workstations in the corridors. The individual offices, meeting rooms, ... we built in the circular a reusable Juunoo system," says project architect Dieter Mariën.

Grand task

Enkele maanden voor de start van de renovatiewerken ging het team van Tectum Group al aan de slag op de voormalige schoolsite. “Die start verliep lichtjes anders dan gepland. In het weekend voor de eerste dakwerken ging een deel van het dak –zo’n 750m² - waaien tijdens een najaarsstorm. Daar heeft Tectum Group snel en accuraat een oplossing geboden door nieuwe PIR-isolatie en waterdichting aan te brengen”, vertelt Werner Aenspeck.

In totaal brachten de dakdekkers van Tectum Group zo’n 2.600m² nieuwe bitumen eni solatie aan en kreeg de overige 6.000m² bestaande dakbedekking een nieuwe laag waterdichting. Het aanhoudende regenweer van de afgelopen maanden maakte de renovatieopdracht tot een behoorlijke uitdaging.

Gelukkig zijn grote werven zoals de Oosterweelcampus niet vreemd voor het team van Tectum Group. “We zijn thuis op grote industriële projecten met hoge veiligheids- en kwaliteitseisen. Bovendien hebben we de slagkracht om snel in te spelen op bepaalde situaties, zoals de stormschade aan de start van het project. De Oosterweelcampus was dus een kolfje naar onze hand, waarmee wij ons kleine bijdrage konden leveren aan dit grootse infrastructuurproject”, besluit Yves Biesmans bij Tectum Group.