‘Open House’ is an award winner
July 2015

The Knowledge Centre Arhus – the word means ‘open house’ – was opened this year in the Flemish city of Roeselare and featuring several bespoke REYNAERS systems, has already won a number of awards.

A public information forum and meeting place, it houses the city’s library and archive, as well as teaching facilities and meeting rooms, offices and social spaces.

Designed by architects Buro ll & Arch+l, the building makes extensive use of Reynaers CW 50 curtain wall system, in both its standard form and with complex bespoke solutions, to accommodate the use of glass on the project. The façade incorporates hundreds of diagonal sections as a feature of the building’s design.

A key part of the city’s regeneration, the building is based on an old bank, but only retains the original concrete structure. As part of the concept, three different types of glass make up the façade with clear and green glass and a third white glass panel positioned approximately 12cm further forward. This gives a sense of greater depth to the curtain wall, which covers an area of 2,700m2.

The façade’s complexity meant that the fabricators on the project – De Witte Aluminiumconstructies NV – worked in collaboration with Reynaers on the development of bespoke solutions to achieve the desired effect. These included T-shaped face caps for the enamelled white glass, special mounting brackets and flat face caps for the CW 50 transoms. Reynaers high insulation doors and windows CS 86-HI and CS 86-HI/HV were also included on the project, to complement the building’s external envelope, along with sliding systems CP 155. The main contractor on the project was Stabag Belgium NV, Region West.

www.reynaers.co.uk