Striking aluminium façade for hotel

The Van der Valk family has long opted for aluminium composite for cladding the facades of its hotels. This was no different for the Venlo branch. The architect and client approached Aldowa Composites at an early stage to help design the aluminium composite cladding. The Rotterdam-based firm, which specialises in the development, engineering, construction, production and assembly of facades, especially for applications with challenging, complex designs, was eventually awarded the contract.

"We can simply produce façade elements, but of course we prefer to do the entire process, developing the architect's ideas and designs into solutions that are technically feasible for everyone. For us, every project starts with discussions with that architect, after which we take care of the engineering, production and assembly of the façade elements," explains René Janssen, account manager at Aldowa Composites. "That's how it happened at Van der Valk in Venlo. We took care of the cladding of the facades for the low-rise, but also for the columns, parapets and balconies as well as the roof structure and edges for the tower. Where natural stone was not used, you can see aluminium composite elements. The plinth was finished in Silk grey RAL 7044, while the darker Umbra grey RAL 7022 was chosen for the tower. The inside of the balconies were given a wood-look print (Malta Oak)."

Aldowa Composites installed about 4,400 m² of aluminium composite cladding. The assembly direction posed the biggest challenge. For example, the assembly teams built in an upward movement with the scaffolding, but for the anchoring of that scaffolding, some points had to be left free. When the scaffolding was dismantled, all empty spots still had to be filled. "In the process, all connection points also had to be done correctly," Janssen concludes. "The result is worth seeing and, moreover, this is another successful example of the cross-fertilisation between Aldowa Composites and Aldowa colleagues, who were responsible for the underlying construction and the additional bracing."