New house in Amsterdam will stand for 200 years

Solid 11 is the name of an 8000 square meter building in the heart of Amsterdam, designed by Tony Fretton Architects, and built of coal-fired bricks from Petersen, inaugurated in 2011.

The new building stands in the Oud West district and is part of an urban renewal project managed by Stadgenoot Housing Corporation with Albert Ravestein as head of the project.

Solid 11 uses the Solid concept, which is developed by Stadgenoot and based on the idea of sustainable, all-brick houses with the brick used as load bearing walls. The concept is also based on the idea of multiple function, offering future tenants high flexibility in the use and layout of the house.

Fretton’s drawing office has built several buildings with Petersen, and they suggested the use of D48 as façade brick and D71 in the wall towards the yard.

It is the idea that Solid 11 will stand for at least 200 years. All materials have therefore been thoroughly tested by the owner, who jointly with the architect selected the bricks for aesthetic reasons as well as for their durability.

 

Water-brushed clinkers in Vedbæk

A special edition of the Petersen magazine, 'Klinker', presents a successful garden north of Copenhagen.

Landscape Architect Jørgen Larsen chose B141 as tile on the patio and on the path in the garden which is beautifully situated overlooking the Sound.

The waterstruck, hard-fired clinker is produced in English clay. With its texture and its colour play ranging from black to red it creates a beautiful contrast to the strict lines of the house on the site, with its white plastered facades and glass sections.

Most of the time house owners on the Danish coast the Sound enjoy the sea view in the shade. This problem Henning Larsen Architects wished to solve when designing the villa in Vedbaek. The result was to design the house partially transparent and establish a terrace on the west side of the house, so residents can stay in the sun or sheltered - while enjoying the sea view.

The special edition by Petersen Clinkers – in Danish – contains clinker projects from the latest Petersen magazines and can be required by writing to info@petersen-tegl.dk.

"Bricks could hardly be more beautiful"

This was the headline of the review of Sorø Art Museum in Politiken on 21 November, written by Karsten Ifversen.

Lundgaard & Tranberg are the architects of the new extension of the museum, which is beautifully adapted to the existing architecture of provincial Sorø. Seen from outside it is difficult to see that the area of the building has been trebled and now also contains large, roomy exhibition halls for the collection of art from three hundred years.

”It is not every day that I feel like taking a bite of a building, but this was the case here”, Ifversen says, adding later: I have never seen a material like this. It flames and shimmers, deep brown and plenty of rust-red touches. Is it metal or is it wood? I must try to knock. It is ceramic! Flat bricks, on top of each other as if they are a light chip cladding and with graphic shadow effects as a bonus. The material gives me an astonished feeling, which stays with me on my walk through the rooms of the museum.”

To put it briefly: The walls of the Sorø museum are Kolumba K48 bricks, one upon the other, and the result must be seen!

 

Brick Awards to Petersen

On 2. November the Brick Development Association held its annual dinner in London with the Brick awards. Petersen Tegl received a prize for the Dundee House – an extension of the Dundee city hall – designed by Reiach & Hall Architects.

Dundee Hall consists of a three-winged building with façade cladding in D71. According to the BDA jury “Dundee House is an example of modern architecture, which makes its mark in the townscape and forms part of the urban whole.” The jury also said that “Dundee Hall gives a discreet but assured and powerful impression”, and that “the building’s high quality of craftsmanship and brickwork is exemplary”.

Reiach and Hall are very satisfied with the choice of D71, which has an almost transparently radiant surface with a shimmering play of colours. Part of the story is also that early in the project the architects worked with glass façades. This proved to be too expensive, and another material had to be found that would give the building a quite different, but equally convincing expression. And therefore Petersen Tegl supplied the façade cladding.

 

Woven with Kolumba™

In Switzerland a new building uses Kolumba to create the impression of brickwork woven as a textile.

In August the Swiss head office of the Raiffeisen Bank was inaugurated in the Bleicheli district of St. Gallen. The office building with 110 workplaces is designed by K & L Architekten, who chose Kolumba™ because the textural surface and oblong size of the brick could create the desired closely woven façade structure.

It is a point that this new office building relates to the Bleicheli district, which until the nineteenth century was famous for its textile industry.

The inauguration day was a festive one with the many guests and speaches by, among others, Dr. Pierin, CEO of Raiffeisen Schweiz, Thomas Scheitlin, Stadtpresident, and architect Thomas Lehmann from K & L Architekten. The inauguration also meant the completion of St. Gallen’s famous “Stadtlounge”.

The Stadtlounge is a red, rubber-based 4000 square metre carpet, created by artist Pipilotti Rist and the architect Carlos Martinez. Stadtlounge has created quite new living space for the citizens and has become famous outside St. Gallen.