Spectacular project in Breda with Corian® as exterior cladding

Project developer HEJA, in cooperation with real estate agent and owner Laurentius (Breda, The Netherlands), realized the Stack project built by Van de Ven Bouw en Ontwikkeling, (Tilburg, The Netherlands) and designed by architectural bureau Marius van den Wildenberg.

At the top of the Loevensteinstraat and Valkenierslaan in Breda, twelve city villas rise: a transparent office building and two residential blocks with 56 apartments. ‘Stack’ refers to the stacking of geometric shapes from which the project is built. The residential blocks are great eye catchers and have a strong vertical rhythm thanks to the extending balconies, which give the residents a spacious outdoor area. The stacked balconies are staggered relative to each other and offer a magnificent view of the green landscape between Bavel and Breda.

Positive, bright and friendly

Because of the location in a somewhat grey, sixties/seventies neighborhood, the goal was building a complex with a positive, bright and friendly atmosphere. According to architect Marius Van den Wildenberg, “Stack should spice up the neighborhood. Partly because of that, they chose a white façade for the building.”

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The right building façade material took over eight months to identify. Different kinds of materials had different advantages and disadvantages regarding weight, color, color stability, mounting options and ease of maintenance. A strong requirement was that the cladding had to be coloured through and through. Many materials had been tested before selecting Corian®.

Corian® high-tech surface, worldwide known for kitchens, bathrooms and interiors projects, here again shows its superior possibilities and design versatility. This high-tech surface from DuPont is very suitable for exterior cladding and gives the façade of the prestigious Stack project even more allure.

Seeing Hotel Seeko’o with own eyes

Architect Marius Van den Wildenberg worked with Corian® in the past: in the eighties he designed a kitchen out of this high-tech material. When he read an article about the famous Seeko’o Hotel in Bordeaux, France, where Corian® was used as exterior cladding, he realized the potential for the facades of Stack. He made a trip to Bordeaux to see the project and was quickly convinced of this material’s possibilities to assure a fresh, white look while creating a powerful statement with the stacked and massive geometry.

8000 square meters

The super smooth surface material is ideal for wall cladding because it is strong, resistant and non-porous. Weather circumstances and wind have no influence. Corian® is easy to maintain and clean. In total the Stack buildings have 8000 square meters of the surface material applied to the outside of the residential blocks.

Subtle pattern

The architect discussed the various possibilities of Corian® as wall cladding in close consultation with the specialists from DuPont. The panels, with a size of 3800x1500x12 mm, form a subtle pattern on the various main structures. Together with DuPont, Marius van den Wildenberg decided to outsource the attachment of the high-tech surface to the specialized and experienced firm Drooghmans Geveltechnieken from Belgium.

Icon of Breda

Architect van den Wildenberg is proud of STACK. The project progressed very well. “STACK is already seen as an icon of Breda,” he says. “Everybody is getting proud. It is beautiful, those smooth white facades: it gives you a ‘wow’-feeling.”

Facades of DuPont™ Corian®

Since several years Corian® is used in exterior cladding applications. Hotel Seeko’o in Bordeaux was the first wall cladding project worldwide, and then followed the Palais des Congres in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, by some private villas and public buildings in different countries. Stack is the second project, in terms of size, where this DuPont high-tech surface is used as architectural exterior cladding solution.