We are happy to announce that Het Platform in Utrecht is this year’s winner of the Nationale Staalprijs in the category of residential buildings! The Staalprijs highlights and awards exceptional achievements in the field of steel construction, in order to stimulate and inspire working in steel. The expert jury says: “This is a strong example of efficient use of space, right at the heart of the city, like we wish to see more often. The architect, structural engineer, executors and the steel structure company all performed extraordinarily. The use of the inner garden as a make shift construction site and storage area providing structural building lines was an ingenious move.”

The big engineering challenge for Het Platform was to construct the tram and bus terminal on a highly complicated building site, resulting in the structure acting as a base that could hold the towering masses of commercial and residential spaces above. In order to solve this challenge, VenhoevenCS partnered with IMd Engineers for a fully integrated design of the structure and architecture, leading to the development of an ingenious custom-made lightweight steel construction with 3D trusses. As a result of this, a better layout of the load bearing columns for the tram and bus terminal came into being, cutting back the required amount of steel and concrete by half.

On behalf of the team VenhoevenCS accepted the award during the Nationale Staalbouwdag on the 4th of October 2022 in the AFAS Theater in Leusden. Photo credits: Pieter Kers | Beeld.nu

Interested in steel construction of Het Platform ? Please visit: Het Platform | Nationale staalprijs

Het Platform

Utrecht (NL), 2020