Intelligent building system applied at Financial Plaza

Financial Plaza, one of ING's office buildings on Bijlmerdreef in Amsterdam, is getting a new front. The building is undergoing a major renovation as part of the ING campus, which involves building a new headquarters and refurbishing several office buildings in Amsterdam Zuid-Oost.

As a facade builder of opaque facade parts, Leebo Intelligent Building Systems takes on this job. The company is known as an enthusiastic and creative company that focuses on realizing high-profile architectural concepts at a high level. Speaking is Jan Couwenberg, head of calculation/sales at Leebo Intelligente Bouwsystemen. He explains that 'out of the box' thinking regularly results in highly innovative solutions.

Prefabricated customization while maintaining design. That's Leebo's intelligent building system.

Prefabricated customization while maintaining design

"Our projects are always customized," says Couwenberg, "which is why, as a total solution provider, we like to work with the client, architect and contractor right from the design phase." Couwenberg notes that the market is crying out for prefab solutions. "We too have a strong prefab tendency but in order to touch the architect's design to the maximum, we provide custom solutions in a prefab jacket. Consider, for example, the LeeBrick solution: a brick finish that does not require bricklaying. Incidentally, that was not used in this project."

Detail photo south facade Financial Plaza: facade customization with LeeFrame and LeeBond from Leebo.

Typical Leebo project

"For project Financial Plaza, we were approached by contractor Dura Vermeer. They know our way of thinking and building and thought this was a typical Leebo project. Together with atelier PRO architekten, Dura Vermeer and our team, we developed a facade system in four steps. Starting at sketch block level, we built a mock-up in our workshop that all parties were enthusiastic about. The mock-up proved to be a good final visual tool with which any critical questions could be answered immediately: what you see is what you get."

Facade-specific customization

The decision was made to use the basic materials of LeeFrame and LeeBond and make the facade-specific custom elements from them. LeeFrame, the lightweight, structural steel frame developed in-house by Leebo served as the basis for the cladding. "This system was devised to serve as an improved alternative to current precast construction methods such as wood frame construction or precast concrete. For the cladding itself, the thin LeeBond sandwich panel was used: very durable and allows for easy processing, creating the possibility of cladding complex, aesthetic facades."

West Facade Financial Plaza.

3D scan

"Thanks to our far-reaching BIM systems, we mapped the solutions according to the possibilities and impossibilities at this facade. This created the structure from which the facade was built." Couwenberg says the building was stripped down to a concrete skeleton and a 3D scan was made with the contractor. "We find it very important to tackle pre-engineering in the construction team as well as possible. That way you still tackle any challenges at an early stage and you can fine-tune here and there in terms of construction tolerances. Fortunately, all that wasn't too bad, but 'better safe than sorry', right?"

Dynamic facade with depth effect

A lot of time went into optimizing the completely new facade. "With such a dynamic facade with a lot of depth, you want to avoid interference from reflections. We did everything we could to make sure the incidence of light on the material turned out well. That did take a few steps with the paint consultants." But Couwenberg is proud: "Yes, we managed with the entire construction team to achieve the desired look and meet the client's expectations. Application of the right materials and good preparation were crucial in this. After all, you want a building like this to reflect the reference level of the client."