Shipbuilding technology for Infoversum Theatre 3D

Made entirely of steel, Archiview’s Infoversum Theatre in Groningen employs the shipbuilding technology that is becoming increasingly popular in architecture these days. The choice is dictated by the need to respond to the creative demands of architects continually striving to meet new challenges in construction. The architect, Jack van der Palen of Archiview, worked with shipbuilding specialists CIG to build a self-supporting single frame structure giving the architects complete freedom in conception and construction of the building. This technique permits optimal control of construction, but requires careful planning of logistics in order to determine the size of prefabricated sections of the building to be transported through the city to the building site. Fortunately, Infoversum has a reduced scale of engineering and construction. The sheet metal components making up the outer walls were joined with welds in which the burr due to addition of material between sheets of metal is invisible, so that the result obtained is a smooth, uninterrupted surface, which is convenient in many ways, for instance for the purposes of ordinary maintenance. This, along with the control and flow-off of rainwater, are managed with appropriate surface treatments. The walls are sandwich panels, dove the thickness of the outer sheets is 10mm, with insulation 100 to 120mm thick to guarantee the building’s energy performance. The single-frame structure ensures that the outer layer of sheet metal interacts with a grid of rigid internal profiles, to which it is welded, so that they can collaborate structurally. It interacts with a number of cross stiffening brackets, which have no effect on thickness, so that the finished wall is no thicker than 370mm.

Fabrizio Orsini

Architect: Jack van der Palen architectengroep ARCHIVIEW
Use: Crossing border 3D immersive full dometheatre for science, art and business
Founding father: Edwin A. Valentijn
Client: stichting infoversum
Address: Vrydemalaan Groningen Nederland
Design: 2009
Construction engineer: Vuyk engineering – ingenieursbureau Wassenaar
Building engineer: adviesburo van der Plas
Architectural engineer: AAS architecten
Start: march 2013
Installation engineer: van der Weele adviesbureau Munnik
Delivery: june 2014
Photographer: Jan H. de Boer
Contractor: Rottinghuis aannemingsbedrijf
3D steel manufacturer: CIG architecture
Installer: Homij technische installaties
Steel manufacturer: Meijer staalbouw