First Panels in Place on the New Façade of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam: The Largest Composite Building in the World

AMSTERDAM, July 20, 2011 -

The new face of the Stedelijk Museum is becoming more
noticeable by the day. A large part of the panels are
already in place on what will eventually become known as
“The Bathtub.” After coating, the white and seemingly
floating construction, with its sleek finish and without any seams
or details, will be the counterpart of the adjacent historic brick
building from 1895. The Japanese fiber manufacturer Teijin produced
and donated the Twaron (aramid fiber) and Tenax (carbon fiber) for
the composite used to create the façade. This, along with a
substantial financial contribution, makes Teijin one of the Main
Founders of the new StedelijkMuseum.

The façade, designed by BenthemCrouwel Architects, consists of a
single surface and covers an area of about 3000 square meters,
which is smooth and gleams in the sun. A solution was required that
would minimize thermal expansion of the material in order to obtain
a seamless effect. The design, development, and production of the
façade required creativity and input from several experts.
Ultimately, the key to the solution was found in the Twaron and
Tenax fibers.

An analysis provided by the engineering firm Solico showed that
an optimal solution would consist of a sandwich construction. The
construction consists of an inner skin and outer skin of a
composite laminate of resin, strengthened by Twaron and Tenax
fibers. Where the resin expands as the temperature rises, both
Twaron and Tenax fibers, due to their negative longitudinal thermal
expansion coefficient, behave oppositely. The result is a composite
panel with minimal thermal expansion.

The composite for the seamless façade of 100 meters expands by
only 1 mm per degree Celsius temperature rise. The same façade
based on a fiberglass composite or aluminum would expand almost two
and a half times as much.

Production of the panels

For the production of the panels, Teijin provided Twaron and
Tenax fibers to Holland Composites. A unidirectional fabric was
produced from the fibers as an intermediate product.

Holland Composites produced the panels for the façade from the
fabrics, vinylester resin and a PIR foam core. The inner skin and
outer skin of the sandwich construction consist of two Twaron
fabrics with a Tenax fabric in between. The fibers are
perpendicularly oriented to each other.

In all, the façade consists of 271 loose elements containing
4850 kg of Twaron and 4050 kg of Tenax. The panels are mounted on
site and glued together using a connecting laminate in order for
the façade to form a single unit.

Teijin, and the Netherlands-based Teijin Aramid, with its
headquarters in Arnhem, made a tremendous gesture towards the
Netherlands and the Stedelijk Museum by providing both the
materials and significant funds.

For more information: href="www.teijinaramid.com">www.teijinaramid.com

For high res images and question please contact: Peter Coolen, peter.coolen at ketchum.com, Tel +31(0)20-487-40-00