Special installation concept for Booking.com City Campus

With an area of 72,500 m² or over a third of the Oosterdokseiland, the new Booking.com City Campus in Amsterdam is one of the largest inner-city projects in Western Europe. For the construction of the installation techniques, Klimaatservice Holland and Van den Pol Elektrotechniek joined forces in the Installation Combination ODE (ICO). Together, the installation partners realized a sustainable, healthy and smart building. "The high-quality techniques, large size and special location made this project unique and challenging."

Last June, the Booking.com City Campus was officially put into operation. Together with project director Jan Nederveen, project leader Pieter Meerkerk and head of design department Willem Sterkenburg of Klimaatservice Holland, we look back on a beautiful and extensive project, which integrated a special installation concept.

Within the Installation Combination ODE, Klimaatservice Holland was responsible for all mechanical installations. From the HVAC installations to the sanitary installations and firefighting installations. A modern and smart control installation was also realized, resulting in a "Smart Building. "We further developed the DO+ design and the principle choices of Techniplan and UNStudio, with an eye for sustainability and for the well-being of all employees," says Sterkenburg. "BREEAM was a requirement that had to be continuously taken into account. For example, to ensure comfort, a climate chamber test was carried out with an expanded metal ceiling and floor ventilation." Nederveen: "An important principle choice was the ventilation supply from the floor plenum. A sophisticated grid distribution enables perfect air distribution, while CO2 sensors guarantee a demand-controlled air supply. By designing the plenum as a pressure box, only a minimum of ductwork was required. According to the idea that warm air rises (displacement principle; ed.), the used ventilation air is extracted at the top of the room."

Open climate ceilings made of expanded metal were installed for the heating and cooling of the office spaces and breakouts, for example, says Nederveen. "In the entrance, parts of the restaurant and the atria, we additionally opted for underfloor heating and floor cooling. In addition, we provided the MER and SER rooms with cooling, and the kitchens were equipped with extensive climate control and kitchen ventilation." Meerkerk: "The biggest challenge in this project was the special geometry. No floor is the same, which also applies to the installation techniques. For the climate ceilings, for example, we sought standardization wherever possible, but special connectors in façade connections were unavoidable. There was a lot of specialism involved here; from design to assembly."

Also, the space between the climate ceilings and concrete floors was limited. "Whereas we normally draw out one floor and eliminate all installations above the ceiling, here we were dealing with large number of unique floors and building components," Meerkerk said. "But also with two areas of coordination (the ceiling and the floor), which required careful coordination. The entire project was worked out in BIM, and we held weekly clash meetings to flesh this out correctly. Both with Van den Pol Elektrotechniek and with the installation partners, structural engineer, architect and secondary disciplines." This coordination received an additional boost when the installation combination was also awarded the entire Booking.com installation package during the course of the project.

The heart of the technical installation is in the basement of the City Campus, which includes six air handling units, the heat and cold distributors and the emergency power generator. "The air handling units have the volume of a terraced house and were transported in parts to Amsterdam, from where they sailed by ship to the Oosterdokseiland," says Nederveen. "Here the cabinets were carefully lifted and assembled, after which the City Campus was further constructed." Heat and cold are supplied by a WKO source on the Oosterdok Island, Sterkenburg explains. "From the basement, heat, cold and ventilation air are distributed to the various spaces through five shaft cores."