Project description
Wijnhaven (‘wine harbour’), Turfmarkt (‘peat market’) and Kalvermarkt (‘calf market’): names from an ancient naval and trading history. This area in the city of The Hague later became the domain of civil servants and governmental services. The former Ministries of Justice and Home Affairs once resided in this building, before it was transformed into an attractive residential, commercial and educational edifice on an immensely popular spot in The Hague city centre. It now offers a multifunctional complex housing 164 apartments, 6 penthouses, 3.400 m2 of commercial spaces for offices, shops and restaurants and 13.000 m2 of spaces for the Leiden University auditoriums. The Wijnhavenkwartier represents one of the major inner city transformation projects in the Netherlands.
Contractor
Kwakman Afbouw Volendam BV
Kwakman from Volendam is a family business that over the past 25 years has developed from a ‘hands-on’ pioneer to a leading overall interior and drywall specialist. Started in 1992 with the assembling of metal stud systems and acoustic ceilings, today one of the most dynamic, innovative and fastest growing drywall specialists in the Netherlands. Kwakman shifts accents to work preparation, is leading in BIM- and 3D-engineering and always seeking and stimulating sustainable cooperation with partners. Kwakman today comprises of complementary companies, each specialists and professionals in a specific area of interior design and drywall, thus covering painting, tiling, interiors, as well as grandstands and construction and finishing of drywall, floors and ceilings. Our team of 250 in total includes designers and stylists that can shape your interior: from design to turn-key project decoration. Each one of them a specialist – sharing one vision and our common target: delivering total solutions for drywall and interior.
Key Achievements
- Kwakman was capable to manage this project within an extremely short timeframe, on a very limited building site with a huge project size, achieving the goals and deadlines, resulting in a high-end atmosphere for both the building owner and the inhabitants.
- Smart processes for all the logistic challenges resulted in a smooth and continuous workflow (740 trucks were unloaded during the building timeframe of only 17 months)
- Close and daily cooperation and communication between contractor Kwakman Afbouw and Gyproc enabled the just-in-time deliveries
- Extensive engineering and training upfront resulted in successfully applying 4.000 m2 of burglar resistant partition walls for an all new solution
Key Challenges
On a building site the size of a ‘stamp’ – in the central The Hague city centre and a complete functional make-over this project is a school model for office transformations. The construction period was extremely short, in relation to the size of the project. A major part of the old complex was still being demolished, while simultaneously they started building the new parts. This results in many controversial transport movements on an extremely limited building space (the ‘stamp-size’). For this reason, the building crane was centered on the rooftop of the residential tower. The team worked with just-in-time deliveries.