lessons learned

cepezed values reflection. In the series Lessons Learned, our quality coordinator visits completed buildings to see how they are doing and track down unsuspected consequences of design choices. This time, it was the Van Spaendock Enterprise House.

quality coordinator
Lessons Learned focuses on buildings completed five years ago or more. The presentations are prepared by our quality coordinator, who inspects the building closely and talks to the client, owner and user, including the technical department. A standard questionnaire has been drawn up for these visits and interviews. Lessons learned makes us more aware of the unsuspected consequences of choices.

metamorphosis
The large-scale renovation of the Van Spaendonck Enterprise House looks like a complete metamorphosis. A bulky concrete colossus from 1968, designed by Van den Broek & Bakema, turned into a real ‘cepezed’ in 2017. With many glass inner walls, extra vides, smooth new facades and new installations, cepezed brought the multi-tenant office up to date in terms of technology, atmosphere and functionality.

split level
The questionnaire concerns, for example, the spatial organisation. In the Van Spaendonck Enterprise House, for instance, the glass inner walls turned out to be a little too excessive. The split levels, which the building already had and which have been retained, define spaces instinctively, but offer just not enough privacy or serenity in some places due to the large amount of glass. At the same time, the user appreciates the feeling of spaciousness and the daylight falling far in.

corners
Other questions concern the state of the material, finishing details, and changes due to use. Although the Enterprise House is still as glossy as when it was completed, a sharp zoom-in reveals colour differences in the parquet, a stainless steel plate on a sill, sloppily placed electrical wires and electrical sockets, uneven transitions with different materials, and puncture marks. Fortunately, besides such ‘dirty corners’, there are also many ‘beautiful corners’.

teck team
The quality coordinator on duty for Lessons Learned is part of cepezed's TECK team. This team supervises and supports ou architects on aspects such as manufacturability and technical quality. TECK stands for ‘technology, euros, contract and quality’, and is mainly concerned with the relationship between them. Not surprisingly, it is exactly the TECK team that is interested in the condition of completed buildings. By presenting the Lessons Learned office-wide, we are not only more aware of what can go wrong, we also know who we can puzzle with on ways to prevent it in the future.

The outcomes of Lessons Learned are presented in the cepezedacademy.