Keetberg pumping station

The building itself consists of two ground floor sections and an underground floor, which is the pump room. The entire structure is constructed of a concrete frame structure with concrete floors and a roof slab.

There were two clear conditions within the assignment: the pumps had to remain in operation during the construction works and the concrete structure had to be preserved. In response, a lightweight, highly insulating wall system was introduced that could quickly and easily make the entire structure wind and watertight.

A captivating architectural shadow play

Given the function of the building, we had to deal with several ventilation grilles of considerable dimensions. Owing to these numerous scattered openings in the wall, we proposed to simply extend the required slat structure over the entire wall, including exterior doors. In this way, the building is viewed from the outside as one solid volume with an expressive architectural statement. The required view and incidence of light are assured by doubling the spacing of the slats at the level of the windows, while maintaining the requested protection against vandalism. This creates a fascinating shadow play on the snow-white interior, which forms a strong contrast to the jet-black outer shell.

SBE tasks

SBE was responsible for the integral design of the pumping station and its immediate surroundings:

• Architecture
• Infrastructure
• Stability design
• Preparation of preliminary design
• Preparation of the tender file
• Preparation of environmental permit application
• Assistance in the follow-up of works