Custom made of steel and hardwood

Former V&D transformed into apartments with luxurious courtyard garden

The storefront of the former V&D in Bergen op Zoom has undergone a metamorphosis and is now called ANNO52. Project developer and construction group BVR Group turned the three-story building into four floors with 45 apartments. In the middle of the building, an opening was made on the second floor and a roof garden was realized for the residents. idverde Realisatie, Roosendaal branch laid the roof garden in 2022, FURNS Street Furniture supplied the custom-made seats and planters, sister company Awood supplied the hardwood decking and cladding elements by FURNS.

Awood performed assembly under subcontract to idverde Realisatie, Roosendaal branch, on which the planting beds were placed. This drainage layer catches the water, so that the greenery in the planting beds is also provided with water on drier days. To create different heights, hills were made of roof garden substrate with EPS plates underneath to save weight. Several planters were also placed, which together with the other plantings color the roof garden green. Perennials and non-spreading bamboo species were planted on the mounds and in the planters. A mix of sedum herbaceous grasses have been planted on the remaining areas. In addition, raised seating elements and two Gleditsia trees were planted in the center of the courtyard garden. The trees have a wire root ball size 20-25 and a transparent crown, keeping it within weight limits and not taking away too much light.

Sharing vision and experience

"Although we are not always told in advance what will be planted in such a roof garden, we do think along at an early stage about what is possible," explains Mathijs van Haren, technical product manager at FURNS. "We are good at steel, aluminum and wood, but we don't sit in the professional's chair. Of course, we do like to hear what exactly our products are used for so that we can share our vision and experience with our partners."

For custom projects such as Anno52 in Bergen op Zoom, the design has already been made by a landscape architect. FURNS' draftsmen then get to work on it. "Because we have everything in-house, from design, materials and production, we can move quickly and have fixed delivery times. For a project like this, there are 6 to 8 weeks between approval and delivery. These can vary depending on materialization and complexity."

Although this particular project for FURNS did not have a lot of complex components in terms of form and materialization, things like weight and size are important everywhere. "There was little space below ground level so there was no mounting space under the decking for the seating elements, among other things. Again, it is important to look at the new situation and construction in close consultation."

Sustainable and circular

In addition to FURNS' contribution to a green built environment, sustainability and circularity are also high priorities. Van Haren: 'You notice that by the fact that we increasingly supply products with bamboo instead of hardwood. Unfortunately not in this case, but more and more often. And the Corten steel we use is also highly recyclable and itself consists largely of recycled scrap. And everything we make is demountable and therefore very well repositionable in another place. Because that will only become even more important in the future.".