Curved curtain wall accentuates new media house

The new headquarters of DPG Media will be the showcase of the renewed neighborhood at Antwerp's Central Station. The building is a design by Binst Architects and was realized by the Belgian BESIX Group. After the demolition of the last houses, construction of the soil retaining walls started immediately, followed by the drainage, excavation and concrete works. The foundation stone was laid in mid-2018 and the highest point was reached in February 2019. Soon this new construction volume will be completed.

Among other things, this new headquarters will be home to News City, where the editorial departments of Het Laatste Nieuws, HLN.be, De Morgen, VTM News, Dag Allemaal, etc. will work, and early next year the VTM News studio will also move to Antwerp. In addition to offices and studios, however, this building has much more to offer.

For example, the pedestal will house several catering outlets - brasserie restaurant and coffee corners - and multimedia setups, which will also be accessible to the general public. Higher up, four generous, accessible roof gardens are planned, which should positively influence the living and working environment of the hundreds of employees and visitors. The crown of the building will be bordered with a belvedere from which interested parties will have a 360° panorama of the city and the majestic station surroundings. The facades are conceived all-sided, meaning that each facade is equally important.

Curved profiles

Vorsselmans was commissioned to design the building's imposing facade, including curved Schüco curtain walls. To bend the profiles, the facade builder came to Brouwers Algemene Buigwerken.

'We supplied 190 curved profiles with different sizes 'and heights'

"As is often the case, we first performed test bending so the customer could see what the final result would look like. After approval, we could start final production. The job included profiles of different sizes, which had to be bent over two directions. Different radii also had to be bent. Using molds, we always checked whether the radius after bending was correct," Edsko Brouwer, manager of Brouwers Algemene Buigwerken, explains this project.

"In the end, we delivered a total of 190 bent profiles with heights of 70, 110, 130 and 180 mm, respectively. After bending, the profiles were still powder coated at Schüco, after which Vorsselmans took care of assembly in the workshop and assembly on site."