Students Residential Towers

Project Overview

To help accommodate the large numbers of students in the town of Zwolle, three new residential towers have been built. Contained within two of these residential towers will be 357 student apartments. The two main principles that were high priority in the design and construction of these three buildings were sustainability and a high quality standard of living comfort.

The residential towers have been built using the “tunnel building method”. When using this method the walls and floors are poured into the framework to form a solid structure. A characteristic of this method is the rapid pace of construction. This was also the biggest challenge for us.   HERTALAN® appealed to the contractor because of the speed of construction and the tight schedule for the supply of materials required. We are flexible in our solutions, have our own in‐house production and are able to dispatch orders quickly. Within a strict timeframe of 6 weeks we delivered the draft proposal, production samples and the 605 new window sleeves.

Within traditional building techniques it is difficult to construct a    good air‐tight building. In order to close the joints around the window frames and to make them air‐tight, contractor Wessels has used HERTALAN® EPDM prefab window sleeves.

EPDM is sustainable, UV‐resistant, flexible and has a very long service life. This combination of properties is unique and as a result the long service life of our EPDM will transcend the life span of most alternative products.

The HERTALAN® window sleeves have been prefabricated, based on a production drawing. The sleeves are manufactured with the 4 corners and the spacers all connected. These connections are made with our hot‐bonding technique. This process is called vulcanisation. This process provides a complete seal against any air leaks or moisture penetration. Once the sleeves has been installed onto the window frame, they form an air‐tight connection within the building. Every window sleeve is prefabricated and offers the best fitting solution for our customers.

The project is characterised by the speed of the construction. For this reason there was no requirement for unforeseen problems. Clear communication and keeping appointments was of the utmost importance. HERTALAN® was involved in this project at an early stage resulting in the EPDM window sleeves being designed and manufactured within the designated time requirements. As a result the contractor was not delayed in the construction of the building   and many uncertainties were removed. During the installation of the window sleeves our technical team gave full on‐site support to the contractor.

In total 650 HERTALAN® window sleeves have been applied in this project. These window sleeves were delivered in stages so the tight working schedule was not compromised. The window sleeves were connected to the window frames in the production factory of Wessels. When they arrived on site they only needed to be sealed to the surrounding surfaces with hertalan® ks96.

Due to the experience of the contractor and the simple installation method of the product there was a substantial saving made on the installation time.

Source: http://www.hertalan.co.uk/