Technische Unie, a Sonepar Company, is the largest technical wholesaler in the Netherlands. The company supplies more than 2 million electrotechnical items from more than 700 suppliers. Its green trucks and vans have been a striking sight on Dutch roads for years. The green color is also the eye-catcher of more and more branches throughout the country. In cooperation with Technische Unie, Buro Duck developed a recognizable and future-proof architectural corporate identity for both the new and existing wholesale locations. Green Trespa Meteon panels, a concrete plinth and dark gray PIR sandwich panels of the facade type SAB W 135.1000 TL ensure a professional and distinctive look and exactly the right balance.
With seven new construction projects and two renovations, Buro Duck can now call itself the in-house architect for Technische Unie. The collaboration between the technical wholesaler and the architecture and engineering firm started several years ago, when Buro Duck was invited to make a design for the transformation of an existing and vacant building in Zwolle.
"In 2017, plans emerged for a new building in The Hague, for which Technische Unie wanted to develop an architectural and widely applicable corporate identity," says Hendrik Lensink, Architect at Buro Duck. "Indeed, the wholesaler was planning to build several new branches in our country. But also to renovate its existing buildings, with a uniform corporate identity as a starting point. Thanks to this house style, all branches will be clearly recognizable as part of the Technische Unie family."
Meanwhile, projects have been carried out in places such as Den Hoorn, Arnhem, Borne and Alkmaar. In addition, work has recently started on the new construction of a branch in Leeuwarden.
Technical Union branches in most cases consist of a service center, office facility and distribution hall for supplying the region, Lensink knows. "Often these are hefty building sizes, so materials and colors have to be well balanced." And they succeeded.
"Most striking about the architectural house style of Technische Unie is the entrance header for the service center and office. At a strategic corner or right in the middle, a 'bite' is taken out of the building. The resulting gap is architecturally filled in with large glass facades with a chic renovation profile and Trespa Meteon panels in the distinctive
Technical Union Green."
The rest of the building is deliberately kept very neutral, he says, with a concrete plinth and PIR sandwich panels SAB W 135.1000 TL in a dark and calm shade of gray. "This makes the accents stand out much better and at the same time guarantees a timeless design. Moreover, the design fits seamlessly into the image quality plans of Dutch municipalities. We haven't had to make a single adjustment yet."
"The concrete plinth varies in height from design to design, but always continues all around," Lensink says. "For the volume above it, SAB-profiel's PIR sandwich panels SAB W 135.1000 TL were chosen very deliberately. Very nice about these panels is the trapezoidal profiling, which creates a special depth and vertical shadow effect. Especially on larger volumes. Because the panels are available in lengths of up to 18 meters, they can always be installed in full length."
Whereas in new construction projects the sandwich panel variant is often chosen, in renovation projects a trapezoidal profile sheet SAB 35/1035 is often used. This has the same look and feel as the trapezoidal sandwich panels. "This allows the existing façade to be retained in most cases and limits structural interventions."
The SAB W 135 TL panels are manufactured with pre-painted steel, says Usen Koppes, Marketing Manager at manufacturer SAB-profiel. "On the outside, these are pre-coated with a special coating and color. For Technische Unie's premises, for example, we chose the 3-layer Colorcoat Prisma®, which guarantees the best combination of aesthetic quality, long-term performance and durability, with guarantees of up to 40 years. In fact, Colorcoat Prisma is the only coating with a 20-year color guarantee for all 29 standard colors. In this case, we chose the dark gray metallic color Zeus, which pairs beautifully with the green of Technical Union."
The SAB W 135 TL facade panel has a high Rc value of 5.72 m2K/W, where 4.7 m2K/W is the norm, Koppes says. "If desired, this panel can also be used excellently as a load-bearing carrier panel, where the panel provides wind, water and air sealing with an additional steel design profile plate, wooden profiles or a composite product afterwards."
Following the appearance and durability of the panels, their timelessness was also reason for Buro Duck to choose trapezoidal panel SAB W 135 TL. "Technische Unie has 37 branches across the country, all of which will sooner or later be upgraded," Lensink said. "There will also be new construction. To guarantee that the chosen house style can continue to be implemented in the future, the long-term availability of the sandwich panels and profile sheets is a must. With the SAB W 135 TL panels, which have been in existence for 35 years, this security is also built in."
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