Month: October 2017

Sustainability was a special point of focus for these office villas composed of broad strips of laminated wood. The wooden sections are made of durable Accoya® wood and attached with coach screws that are left exposed.

Three wood design office villas in Rotterdam’s Brainpark — known as V1, V2 and V3—creatively fit the landscape to provide maximum performance and a unique user experience. Careful attention to the materials and functionality of these buildings, which are used as administrative, commercial and protective facilities, give new meaning to how one thinks of office space. This innovative approach has made them an ideal place for tenants, including the Netherlands headquarters of travel giant Sunweb and project development firm, Proper-Stok.

Design with Durable Accoya

Designed by Mei Architects of Rotterdam, the villas create a powerful first impression. With a striking design concept, they transform the utilitarian nature of a parking garage by locating the entrance through the parking areas (beneath the building) where the lobby and cafeteria are also located. The quality of the interior finish of the parking garage presents a signature calling card for the tenant company.

While designed together, each villa was built with its own distinctive façade. V2 has cladding of very wide laminated wood parts made of durable Accoya wood which are attached with lag screws left exposed. When introduced in 2008, Accoya wood was the recipient of the annual Dutch National Award for Innovation, “The Columbus Egg,” for the most innovative sustainable invention.

Penetrating, low VOC protection – designed for machine application

The villas’ Accoya wood exteriors have kept their unique white appearance by using Sansin Precision Coat SDF (a wood coating formulated for factory finishing). Rated by siding manufacturers as one of the best natural finishes available, Precision Coat SDF penetrates into the Accoya wood, providing outstanding weather and UV protection in a wide range of natural, semi-transparent, as well as solid colors. Its water-borne technology provides complete protection of Accoya.

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An outpatient treatment clinic located in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. The building uses Accoya® wood throughout the facility to create a natural environment to improve patient treatment and outcomes.

The Langeberg Nijmegen Treatment Clinic is an outpatient clinic located in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. The building, designed by architects Buro SBH, in collaboration with Bogerman Dill Architects, uses wood throughout the facility to create a natural environment intended to improve patient treatment and outcomes.

Leegwater selects Sansin’s SDF finish

The characteristics of the façade are a coarse masonry substructure and a differentiated superstructure. The use of two different materials represent the formal nature of the clinic’s work and the informal nature of its setting in the forest.

Leegwater, a distributor of sustainable wood and wood products, has been an avid user of Sansin products for more than 18 years, and recommended Sansin for the clinic. Sansin’s low VOC Enviro Stain, SDF Precision Coat, is highly water-repellent and a natural choice for homes and structures in moisture-rich environments. Not only does SDF Precision Coat protect the outside of the wood, it also protects the inside by allowing the wood to “breathe” helping to prevent moisture from getting trapped in the wood.

SDF Precision Coat enhances Accoya

In addition to protecting the clinic’s stunning wood exterior, Sansin stain enhances the warm, natural beauty of the Radiata Pine treated siding. Radiata Pine, sourced from a variety of locations, typically in New Zealand, is a species mainly used to produce Accoya.

Rated by siding manufacturers as one of the best natural finishes available, SDF Precision Coat penetrates into the Accoya wood, providing outstanding weather and UV protection in a wide range of natural, semi-transparent and even solid colors. Its water-borne technology provides complete protection of Accoya.

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The Oostvaarders Nature Center stands on the edge of the Oostvaardersplassen in the Netherlands, using an Ebony color on its cladding to mimic the dark silhouettes of grazing cattle dotting the horizon of the reserve.

Designed by the Rotterdam architectural firm Drost + Van Veen in 2008, the Nature Center is modest but inviting and rises from the flat land, with a head space that extends into a panorama to see the nature reserve.

The façade of the building’s transformation is recognizable by the numerous framed-view windows. Constructed in massive, prefab wooden walls and floors, with varying diagonal planks, the façade features FSC 100% certified spruce provided by sustainable wood supplier Leegwater of Heerhugowaard, Netherlands. The architecture firm has worked with Leegwater on other projects and trusted Leegwater to select not only the best wood for the cladding but also the best protective coating for the thermally-treated wood.

A long-term relationship of trust

Leegwater, an avid user of Sansin products for more than 15 years, recommended using the penetrating one-coat finish of Sansin’s Precision Coat SDF on the Oostvaarders’ spruce cladding for its proven record of protecting thermally-modified wood and to maintain the organic look of the spruce. The façade’s color, 27 Ebony, was inspired by the dark silhouettes of grazing cattle dotting the horizon of the reserve.

Highlighting natural beauty

Sansin offers natural perfection in protecting Oostvaarders’ wood cladding by only using the finest ingredients, allowing the modified natural oils and resins to penetrate deep into the wood, providing exceptional weather and UV protection. SDF not only protects the outside of the wood, it also protects the inside by allowing the wood to “breathe”, helping to prevent moisture from being trapped in the wood and causing rot. The result is deep and intense wood protection that will endure long winters and damp summers.

Treatments for Engineered Wood

Since the completion of the Oostvaarders Nature Center, Sansin has introduced Eos and Ardera, two new wood treatments that build on the proven results of SDF for exceptional performance on substrates and exterior wood surfaces, including Thermally-Modified and Accoya Wood. Eos and Ardera both provide the quality and features of SDF while improving on its formula to better meet the demands of engineered wood products.

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Perched above the rolling surf in La Jolla, California, The Salk Institute, revered around the world as a modern architectural treasure, was meticulously restored to reflect its original design.

Restoration and construction is complete on the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, a masterwork founded by Dr. Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vaccine, and designed by renowned architect Louis Kahn.

Built to house ground-breaking medical research, the restoration effort was led by the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), which researched and funded the long-term conservation management of the complex that was commissioned in 1965.

Distinctive Teak Elements

During three years of research to prepare for the restoration project, GCI selected the Sansin Corporation to provide the durable, aesthetically-enhancing and environmentally-friendly finish for the Institute’s distinctive teak window wall assemblies, which are major features of the design.

Dr. Salk considered the La Jolla, California-based Institute’s design to be integral to its success. He sought to create a beautiful campus that would attract the world’s best minds to research topics that today include cancer, diabetes, birth defects, Alzheimer’s disease and AIDS, among others. Kahn’s design entailed two wings of laboratory, study and office space that mirror each other on either side of a central courtyard, with a view to the Pacific Ocean. The institute’s concrete construction is accented by the non-uniform appearance of 203 custom teak elements, which include sliding window panes, louvres and shutters.

In the course of its restoration research, GCI’s team discovered deterioration in the window walls due to a combination of mold, exposure to the elements and the effects of previous inadequate installation and maintenance efforts. Erosion was found to have impacted some window sills down to one-quarter of an inch into the wood.

GCI’s meticulous process to restore the windows included studying Kahn’s archived design documentation and performing DNA testing on wood to get replacement teak from the same region as the original. GCI tested many different protective finishes in roof top fence tests by placing teak wood samples on the roof to assess how they would perform in the exposed marine environment. As a result, Sansin was selected to supply its SDF finish to protect and preserve this historical landmark.

In 2006, the 27-acre site was deemed eligible by the California Historical Resources Commission and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

SDF up to the task for marine environments

Sansin SDF utilizes specially formulated oils and resins that penetrate into the wood, providing outstanding weather and UV protection in a wide range of natural, semitransparent and even solid hide colors. Because SDF is designed to be highly water-repellent, it’s a natural choice for homes and structures in moisture rich and marine environments.

Future maintenance coats will be provided by Sansin’s Eos product.

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