Town Hall Renswoude

Old and new

The building consists of the original monumental building and a newly realized modern volume. The existing part was a presbytery in 1651. Over time, more and more extensions were added in a farmhouse-like style, and the function was changed to town hall. These extensions no longer met today’s requirements and detracted from the character of the original volume. The extensions have been removed and the original building has been restored with the utmost care. The required extra space has been realized as a contemporary volume with an appropriate distance from the monument.

Waste glaze

In addition to CLT, circular ceramic brick slips with a glaze of waste materials have been used in Renswoude. The ‘waste glaze’ glaze contains components from the waste incinerators of household waste and consists largely of recycled glass. Pieces of glass from the bottle bank on the corner of the street are used in the facade of the Municipal House. The brick slips were produced by Dijkstra Friese Kleiwarenfabriek.

The interior

The monument is visually kept separate from the new building by creating a transparent corridor in between. This is also the place of the entrance. This has been implemented in the interior by allowing the reused clinker paving from the outside and exterior facade finishes to continue here. In the monument, the later additions of low quality have been removed and, where possible, they have been greatly preserved by means of insulation, secondary windows and a new installation principle. On the ground floor, the monumental original entrance hall (which is still used for weddings), meeting rooms and mayor’s room have been chosen to bring back the original green color scheme of ceilings and beams and to supplement this with light tones and warm accents.

On the first floor, a partly original wooden trace layer and roof structure have been brought back into view as white wood, also supplemented with light shades and warm color accents. In the materials of the new building, a loose, modern translation of what is happening in the monument can be seen. For example, the wooden CLT construction is a reference to the wooden roof, which provides a warm, natural feel to both building parts because all wooden columns, beams, floors and walls are kept in sight. This is reinforced by the large window openings to the green opposite, which, together with the transparent and flexible infill, ensure that everywhere in the building the natural location becomes part of not only the exterior, but also the interior. The base is also supplemented with white walls and light gray carpeting that catch the light as much as possible. As a reflection on the informal, lively and personal character of the municipality and its services, warm, soft areas of color have been added, which at the same time provide orientation within the whole.

CLT

The new building is mainly built with Cross-Laminated Timber supplemented with timber frame construction, a construction method that is very efficient but above all sustainable. These ambitions have been important from the start of the process, which is why the choice for this could be made at an early stage of the design process and was carefully monitored in the further process. CLT can be applied circularly, the wood stores CO² and has lower CO² emissions during production than, for example, concrete or steel.

CLT was also chosen because it allows you to build quickly and efficiently. The prefabricated structural wooden frame is mounted on the construction site in a relatively short time. The solid wooden construction boards for the floors and roof, made up of several layers of cross-glued wood, are also structurally very strong. The need for circular and sustainable construction is evident and also reason for Zecc to opt for ‘new applications’ such as building with CLT. But not entirely unimportant was that the appearance of the wooden CLT construction fits beautifully with the old trusses that can be seen in the roof of the national monument. Old and new are connected in this way. CLT is therefore convincingly the most suitable construction method for Renswoude. This has been done with a view to a more sustainable future, an efficient construction process and in line with the historical value of the old town hall.