IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DUNE LANDSCAPE

Miles of sandy beaches, cosy little coastal towns and a wide range of leisure activities make the Zeeland region in the Netherlands a popular holiday and travel destination for families, kitesurfers, windsurfers and cycling fans. It is therefore not surprising that coastal resorts such as Domburg benefit particularly from tourism and have experienced a real growth boom in recent years. The so-called “beach pavilions” certainly contribute to this popularity – including the OAXACA beach club, which opened on Domburg beach in spring 2022.

The architecture of the new building adapts to its surroundings – both in terms of colour and design. The roof in particular, with its gentle curvature in the middle and the subtly shimmering light colouring, gives the impression of imitating the dune landscape with its gentle sand hills. The domed roof of the nearby water tower – a monument to the city – was also used as inspiration. The new pavilion therefore blends harmoniously into its surroundings, regardless of the perspective from which it is viewed.

Bouwbedrijf Meliskerke from the neighbouring town of the same name was responsible for the technical work. Aluvo Felspartners B.V. from Nieuwleusen was also called in for the planning and realisation of the roof. “Thanks to our many years of experience as a premium partner of Kalzip, we were involved in the further development of Emma Architecten’s design. We started planning in April 2021 and were able to complete the work on the roof in August 2022,” reports Jan Brinkman, Market Development Manager at Aluvo Felspartners. In order not to miss too much of the high season, the OAXACA beach club was opened in April before completion.

DOUBLE-SLOPED CONSTRUCTION

The use of natural materials runs through the entire building, including the supporting structure: the prefabricated timber frame components are largely visible in the interior as a stylistic element. The roof substructure is also made of wood and echoes the externally visible wave in the interior.

In order to construct the outer roof cladding in this form, precise planning was required, explains Jan Brinkman: “Using a digital 3D model, we were able to calculate the exact height for each point and thus plan the roof construction together with Kalzip.” For the curvature, a construction was used that replicates the roof wave using factory-formed aluminium tubes. The subsequently installed E-clips enable easy assembly of the aluminium profile panels according to the modular principle. They also leave sufficient space for mineral thermal insulation, which insulates the roof in the long term.

The profiled sheets were prefabricated at Kalzip. In order to realise the curved transition of the implied sand hill, it was not enough to roll form the XT free-form profiled sheets. A large proportion of the standing seam sheets had to be bent and rotated depending on where they were to be used in order to create the gentle slope. With the help of 3D planning, the numbered standing seam profiles could be laid in the correct arrangement at the installation site.

EVERYTHING UNDER ONE ROOF

The construction of the OAXACA beach club was completed after a period of around one and a half years. Foldable aluminium in the same colour as the standing seam profiles was also supplied to frame the sides of the roof. The Kalzip roof in the colour AluPlusPatina Champagne G12 not only fulfils aesthetic requirements on the new building.

The building is sustainably supplied with energy from an air-to-water heat pump, which emits its heat to the entire building via underfloor heating and its cold via ventilation. The devices for both the ventilation and the air-to-water heat pump as well as the kitchen extractor bonnet are integrated into the roof. At two inconspicuous points in the roof, corresponding recesses have been made in the aluminium profile panels, under which the exhaust air systems of the appliances are located, so that they visually disappear under the roof cladding and do not interrupt the striking main shape of the roof.