Just around the corner from our office in Gouda lies the charming city of Rijswijk, in the province of South Holland. A delightful blend of history, nature, and modern amenities, it’s a great place to live, especially in the new homes of the RijswijkBuiten project. In 2022, Pelecon was commissioned to provide structural advice for 109 of the affordable homes in this project. Together with Klunder Architects and the Development Consortium Spoorzone Rijswijk (a partnership between Stevast Development and Dura Vermeer), we developed the plans.
What’s special about this project is that the homes are being constructed using tunnel formwork. This is a construction technique where a combination of floor and wall formwork is used in one mold (formwork) to pour concrete structures. This technique is mainly applied in the construction of repetitive structural units, where the walls and floors are poured simultaneously. The process works in cycles, with a new section of the building completed each day.
Tunnel formwork offers many advantages
Since the walls and floors are poured at the same time, the construction of a building can proceed much faster than with traditional methods. It is also extremely stable, strong, and cost-efficient. The use of steel or prefabricated formwork ensures precise measurements and high-quality finishing of the concrete structures. This reduces the need for further finishing work, such as plastering. Due to the large number of homes of the same size, there was a great deal of repetition.
Advantages of working within the BIM model
For this project, we have collaborated from the start using a BIM model (Building Information Model in 3D) with developers and the architect. This model streamlines the entire construction process from design to completion, increases efficiency, reduces costs, and improves communication and quality of the project. The digital 3D model provides not only visual information but also functional details about the building. In this project, we focused heavily on the impact of vibrations from the nearby passing train traffic on the construction of RijswijkBuiten. This is one reason why unreinforced concrete walls are widely used in this project. Since the building is constructed as a monolithic unit, the floors and walls are structurally connected, making the entire building work together structurally. Each wall has a small contribution to the whole and can therefore be optimized. Unreinforced concrete is very capable of handling loads.
Construction of the homes has already begun, with the piles currently being driven into the ground.