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As early as the design phase of the new office for advertising agency Hannibal in Roeselare, Belgium, at least one thing was crystal clear: a tonne of light was a must. A glass facade is the obvious choice, however when the sun hits it, the building soon becomes a hothouse, to say nothing of the reflections on computer monitors. Solving this challenge proved an ideal pilot project for Renson and Reynaers Aluminium’s integration of glass facades and minimalist sun protection screens.
Garden at the centre, indoors and outdoors
“Design is never the product of an architect alone,” explains Sander Verhanneman, architect at Rohm, which designed Hannibal’s new office in Roeselare.
“For his new office, Hannibal especially wanted to preserve the character of the garden, so we kept the footprint of the building as small as possible. That did mean we had to opt for three storeys, which the city of Roeselare fortunately approved. One nice bonus is the fact that you can now see the city skyline from the second floor, which makes for a lovely vantage point. Budget-wise, we took an ‘industrial’ approach to this project, but that grey and clean look actually give the necessary calmness in contrast with the greenery of the garden.” That is carried through to the inside and becomes part of the interior. For instance, the glass facades on the first and second floors – conceived as a duplex landscape office with, in particular, a great deal of visibility to the outside – allow you to look straight into the treetops. Indoors and outdoors thus literally blend together here. “With a glass front and rear facade, you can even see right through the building,” says Verhanneman. “That creates a vast openness and bathes the interior in light.”
Light inside and view to the outside
This was a very conscious choice for one of the Hannibal managers, Kristof Carrein: “Our ad agency’s ‘creative warriors’ prefer natural light to edit their photos, make colour choices and review ads. Plenty of daylight was thus indeed an absolute must in our new office building.” But glass facades also prove their usefulness in reverse. “It would be a shame not to have a nice view of the city garden when seated inside. A serene environment creates serenity in the mind, so we just had to capitalise on that.
Avoiding reflection and overheating
A lot of glass involves the risk of overheating on sunny days. This wasn’t such a big issue in the front –facing north-west – but the south facade at the back needed sun protection.
“For a glass facade like this – and by extension, for all windows – outdoor sun protection screens are the most efficient way to prevent it from quickly becoming unbearably hot inside on hot days,” says Sander Verhanneman on the choice of screens. “This also always proved to be necessary in previous office projects. We often opt for dark screens in these cases because they offer more transparency. Even with the screens down, the view to the outside is fully maintained.”
According to Kristof Carrein, what also played a part in the choice of sun protection screens was that this would also eliminate reflections on computer screens.
Architectural glass facade with screens
Lein Aluminium was the chosen partner for the glass facade itself. The Zonnebeke-based firm was familiar with both Reynaers Aluminium and Renson, which had just introduced their joint new development for glass facade and sun protection screens.
“This project was quite a challenge,” manager Jan Lein confirms. “Visually, the front and rear facades are the same, but at the back, the screens are nicely integrated with the facade. That is also why the front facade doesn’t have any standard aluminium glass facade profiles. Architectural glass facades like these are never simple, and they require close monitoring, from design to finishing. In the rear facade, Reynaers Aluminium ConceptWall 50 was combined for the first time ever with the Renson Fixscreen Minimal Curtain Wall 50.
Sander Verhanneman comments: “Our main concern was to be able to integrate those screens neatly and tightly into the curtain wall. Since no standard terminal strip was used here, we worked with Reynaers, Renson and Lein to find the most suitable elaboration. And for that, the new combination solution from Renson and Reynaers proved to be a hit for the parameters we had set. Whereas for curtain walls you used to have to make do with sun protection screens that were not fully compatible and whose coupling guides were simply screwed to the curtain wall profiles, here we were able to achieve a much tighter result that does not detract from the design.”
Reynaers Aluminium x Renson
Mieke Tielemans of Renson comments: “Reynaers Aluminium and Renson found each other in their ambitions to realise even more beautiful projects. Our joint R&D departments searched for the perfect match for an ideal glass facade with sun protection screens. We minimised the implementation steps and completed the testing and accreditation processes together. This resulted in a reduction of the total number of profiles to just three instead of five: the cover profile and base terminal strip from Reynaers Aluminium and the coupling side guiding channel from Renson. This way, contractors and architects can rest assured that the processing is done smoothly and the execution looks impeccable.”
A building with charisma
A year after Hannibal’s move, business manager Kristof Carrein is still very happy with the new office. “A building contributes to the allure of a company and in that respect, we appear to have made the right choices. Moreover, it’s a joy to work there thanks to the integrated screens; plus, they don’t detract from the clean facades.”
The overall look of this design was also exactly what Sander Verhanneman had in mind. “I think all of Roeselare knows the building now. At the same time, it’s nice to be able to look back on a successful design that doesn’t necessarily have to be the most expensive.”
