Grizzly

The Grizzly building at Pivot Park in Oss will be an inspiring building, with an equally inspiring façade. An alternating pattern of horizontal and vertical lines creates a special layering effect and an exciting overall appearance, with Hydro companies WICONA and Metadecor playing an important role.

Completion of Grizzly in Oss is a family affair for Hydro companies

At the Pivot Park in Oss, the focus is on better global healthcare for all, both now and in the future. Three new buildings will be added to the park over the next few years, with Dura Vermeer Bouw Zuid responsible for one of them: Grizzly. This building will soon be the largest on the campus, where life science companies will work on promising pharmaceutical and biomedical innovations. During its construction, the focus will be on quality, sustainability and CO2 reduction. WICONA’s profile systems fit seamlessly into this concept.

The Grizzly building comprises a whopping 11,000 square metres of working space spread over eight floors. Construction started in March 2022 and the project is scheduled for completion as early as this year. “Because of the relatively short construction time, we relied on smart building techniques, such as prefabricated and scaffoldless construction,” says Raimond Stassen, project manager at WICONA. “Of course, our profile systems fit seamlessly into this concept.”

Beautiful, sustainable and easy to install

Designed by studio Proof of the Sum, Grizzly meets the BENG requirements. The project will be realised by Dura Vermeer Bouw Zuid, who won the construction contract following a private tender. “Even at the tendering stage, the contractor had to submit a clear plan of action,” Stassen notes. “This plan had to cover everything from strategy to technical optimisation, something there was plenty of room for in this project. An interesting challenge that also involved WICONA. During the tendering stage, as part of a construction team alongside façade builder Aluvo, we devised a technical solution for the building façades. We aimed for an optimal balance of feasibility, manufacturability and risk mitigation, while respecting aesthetic design considerations. In the engineering phase, this solution was fine-tuned even further, resulting in a beautiful, sustainable and easy-to-install façade.”

Risks mitigated

A distinctive feature of the original façade design was the large number of components, Stassen says. As an example, he mentions the window frames, which protruded quite a distance from the façade. “To achieve this appearance, reinforced casement frames and additional windproofness and watertightness provisions were required. But even then, the risk of leaks would be (too) high. So we devised a tailor-made project solution to manage these risks. Thanks to our solution, Dura Vermeer Bouw Zuid was able to work as planned with precast concrete inner cavity walls, into which WICONA’s hole-filling elements were fitted in advance. These elements were engineered so that they could be fixed to the concrete without a casement frame.”