Nationaal Militair Museum
| Client | Heijmans @ Ventures B.V. |
| Completion time | 2011- 2014 |
| Market | Art and culture |
| In collaboration with | Felix Claus Dick van Wageningen Architecten |
| Location | Soesterberg |
| Project scope | 30,000 m² BVO |
| Expertises | |
The roof
A spectacular feature of the museum is the roof. It not only protects visitors from all weather conditions but also houses all technical installations. The roof is the size of 4 football fields, making it a true masterpiece. It consists of a steel structure that needed to be sufficiently rigid for the glass facades and capable of spanning spaces up to 85 meters. The facade columns are located on the outside of the glass fronts and, like the surrounding roof canopies, are subject to temperature changes. ABT designed a three-dimensional beam grid, consisting of trusses in two directions. Relatively light steel profiles in the 4-meter-high ingenious structure distribute the loads. The roof is largely visible, making it the most prominent feature of the museum’s architecture.
As light as possible
The challenge was to design a roof as light as possible that could support 72 different load and suspension combinations. To achieve this, 150 to 300 evaluations were necessary. Conventional calculation methods were insufficient, so ABT developed an Optimization Toolkit: software that can calculate the most optimal structure for the roof based on set parameters. The result is a roof that weighs not 100, but 60 kilograms per square meter: it is light, sustainable, and cost-effective. This significantly contributes to the affordability and sustainability of the museum. Besides cost savings, this also means less CO2 emissions from steel production, processing, transport, and assembly.
Hybrid floor
Since the museum houses not only hanging exhibits but also heavy standing pieces, such as tanks, it was a challenge to design a floor that could withstand such point loads while keeping the expansive floor intact. ABT calculated that the entire building needed to be founded on steel. Using grout anchors, the floor was anchored in the sand of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug. On top of this, a hybrid concrete floor was poured, which is both thin and strong and stiff. The secret of the floor lies in the formation of a reinforcement mesh and a carefully designed concrete mix with added steel fibers.
Hanging airplanes
Since airplanes weighing more than 10 tons needed to be suspended in special flight positions, the engineering of the suspension was no easy task. While work on the roof structure was still ongoing, ABT was already designing the suspension system. This resulted in ingenious engineering of the suspension points, steel cables, and attachment points, allowing airplanes to be hung in various positions.
Sustainable quality
The weight savings in the steel roof and concrete floor greatly contribute to the building’s sustainability. Additionally, 3,240 solar panels have been installed on the roof structure, generating a total of 753 MW per year. In close consultation with Heijmans, ABT determined the location and angle of the solar panels.
Nomination for Vernufteling 2013
The steel structure of the roof received a nomination for the Vernufteling 2013. Watch the related video here. In the category of Utility Buildings, the National Military Museum received the National Steel Award 2016.
Images © Anne Reitsma, Gijs Dragt, Pieter Kers, and Hans Roggen.
