Also known as the Dutch Vault, the Royal Dutch Mint in Houten in the Netherlands is one of four buildings shortlisted in the Best Industrial & Logistics Development category for the 2021 MIPIM Awards. The exquisite facade for this iconic building displays high-gloss Granite® Silky Shine from ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products.

MIPIM Awards: an internationally-renowned real estate competition

Since 1991, the MIPIM Awards have been honouring the most formidable and impressive projects in the world of real estate. The 2021 judges have shortlisted 50 finalists representing outstanding projects in 12 categories. It is now over to the MIPIM delegates to finalise the winning projects in each category. The winners will be selected with delegates’ votes carrying equal weight with the jury’s votes and will be announced at the MIPIM Awards ceremony on Wednesday 8 September, 2021.

Facetted cladding with Granite® Silky Shine

The exterior of the Royal Dutch Mint building resembles a safe with almost no visible opening. The unique design was inspired by the relief particular to the euro coins minted in the Netherlands. The cladding of this golden facade is made up of profiled and prepainted steel sheets (Isis 55-120/7 triangular profiles fabricated by ArcelorMittal Construction using prepainted Granite® Silky Shine Gold 50µm steel from ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products) which have been placed in different directions with the vertical and horizontal layers coming together to form the facetted facade. The Granite® Silky Shine facade is attached to the concrete building using a substructure made with Magnelis®, also from ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products.

Text:
Constructalia

Images:
SWAD Video
LT Photography

Join Steligence® for this free English-language webinar on Wednesday 7 July 2021 at 13.00 CEST.

Topic: HyPer grades - galvanised high strength steels for structural engineering

Scope: Europe

Presenter: Jérôme Guth, Metallic coated steels segment Leader at ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products

Cold formed steel profiles are important components for buildings’ structural applications. They are commonly used to design primary or secondary structures to support floors, roofs, and facade elements in the form of purlins, rails, and decking. They distribute the various loads from the building envelope to the main frame and the foundations.

They are also used in other structural applications such as silos and tanks, conventional or high-bay racks, and solar mounting systems.

During this webinar, the range of metallic coated high strength steels for these applications - available in two standard families: construction grades and high strength low alloy (HSLA) grades - will be presented and their specific properties explained.

Particular attention will be paid to how the range of HyPer grade steels for construction is fulfilling the material requirements of the Eurocode 3 design and material rules to enable building owners to construct safe and cost-effective buildings. Indeed, even at a slightly higher costs, these grades allow a more effective structure to be designed in addition to saving weight and cutting the overall cost of your projects.

Last but not least, reducing weight and material quantities with high strength steel is a strong and immediate lever to reduce the environmental footprint of steel solutions.

Click here to reserve your free spot.

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Registration

Based in Turkey, Meko Metal is a leading advocate for Magnelis®, actively promoting the highly advanced coating with its global customer base. Meko Metal uses Magnelis® to create profiles and tubes which are utilised in: solar support structures; greenhouses; agricultural applications such as chicken farms; prefabricated housing; and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) applications. To ensure that their customers can access Magnelis® quickly, Meko Metal maintains its own high stock levels of the coated steel in Turkey.

Convincing major customers

Meko Metal launched a campaign to ensure their customers are aware of the benefits of Magnelis® for their various applications. They began “by branding Magnelis® as ‘MekoMag,’” says Serkan Gürler, Vice President of the KMC Group that acquired Meko Metal about ten years ago. Working in collaboration with ArcelorMittal on co-marketing materials, Meko Metal is dedicated to sharing the advantages of Magnelis®.

Meko Metal’s efforts have seen Magnelis® being adopted by customers in many different industries. “We work with a major global company active in the construction, energy, and manufacturing industries,” says Serkan Gürler. “After eight months of tests and discussions they switched around a third of their products to Magnelis® as a trial. After seeing the benefits of this unique coating, they now request Magnelis® in most applications.”

As well as being easier to work with than hot dip galvanised material, Magnelis® offers long-term protection against corrosion in many applications. “For our customers in the solar industry, ArcelorMittal’s guarantee on Magnelis® of up to 25 years is extremely interesting,” says Serkan Gürler. “It assures them they will be able to obtain an adequate return on their investment.”

Magnelis® stocks reduce lead times

With demand for Magnelis® being very strong, Meko Metal decided to stockpile the material to ensure they can offer customers very short lead times. Meko Metal now receives coils of Magnelis® coated material directly from ArcelorMittal’s mills in Bremen, Germany; Liège, Belgium; and Avilés, Spain. “If we cannot supply Magnelis® within their deadlines, many customers will consider galvanised steel instead,” explains Serkan Gürler, “but thanks to our warehouse of material, we can offer customers just-in-time deliveries. We also provide this service for ArcelorMittal’s HyPer® high strength structural steels.”

Dedicated R&D capabilities

Another focus for the company is on research and development. Meko Metal has its own in-house tooling facility which gives the company great flexibility and accelerates its R&D activities. During 2020, Meko Metal completed a €3 million investment in a 46-station roll forming line dedicated to R&D. The line can handle material up to 4 mm thick and is used to process steels including S700MC, HyPer® grades, and the dual-phase grade DP1180.

The line is used in conjunction with Copra FA optimisation software, as Serkan Gürler explains: “The software is a great way to show customers how their designs can be realised, but they still want to handle the material. The new roll forming line enables us to provide them with real-life samples which they can use to test their own systems and products.”

About Meko Metal

Meko Metal was established in 1969 in Izmir, Turkey. Today the business is a part of the KMC Group and employs almost 200 people at their 80 000 m2 production facility in Turkey. This includes an R&D department with six engineers who work on optimising Meko Metal’s processes and developing new products. Meko Metal exports its products to Africa, the EU, the Caribbean, China, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Russia, the UK, and the US.

More info: mekometal.com.tr

ArcelorMittal Orange Book

Meko Metal is also utilising ArcelorMittal’s Orange Book, a website dedicated to helping design engineers to reduce the weight of their structures and optimise the structural, environmental, and economic performance of profiles made with ArcelorMittal’s high strength steels.

Text:
ArcelorMittal Europe Communications
Constructalia

Images and video:
Meko Metal

Related link(s)

Meko Metal

On 16 March, French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal became the newest laureates of the prestigious Pritzker Prize - the highest distinction in the world of architecture. Known for their private and social housing, public space, and institutional building design, Lacaton and Vassal meld sustainability with respect for pre-existing structures.

Sustainable designs that favour expanding space

Lacaton and Vassal, from the eponymous agency they founded in 1987, are known for their architecture that infuses humanism with sustainable and affordable designs that favour the expansion of space. They also received the Sustainable Architecture Prize in 2018. Their most notable works include: 14 houses for the Cité Manifeste in Mulhouse (2005), the Bordeaux University Management Sciences Centre (2008), the rehabilitation of the Bois-le-Prêtre Tower in Paris with ArcelorMittal metallic coated steel (2010), the transformation of 530 housing units - buildings G, H, I - in the Grand Parc district of Bordeaux (2017; with Frédéric Druot and Christophe Hutin), and a residential and office building in Chêne-Bourg, Switzerland (2020).

Their work is grounded in an intention to respond to ecological and social imperativeness, especially in the sphere of urban housing. “They accomplish this through a powerful sense of space and materials that creates architecture as strong in its forms as in its convictions, as transparent in its aesthetic as in its ethics.” (Pritzker press release)

Lightness and simplicity

With the use of winter gardens and balconies, the architects economically expand living space, conserving energy and bringing the outdoors in. “Our job is to solve constraints and problems and find spaces that can create uses, emotions, and feelings” explains Jean-Philippe Vassal. “At the end of this process and all of these efforts, there must be lightness and simplicity, when everything that came before was so complex." (Pritzker press release)

Discover how Lacatan and Vassal, along with Frédéric Druot, brought this breathability to the constrained space of the Bois-le-Prêtre Tower through renovation in our case study.

Text:
Constructalia

Images:
Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal photo courtesy of Laurent Chalet
ArcelorMittal