Transformation Seelig barracks, Breda | 'Fitting and measuring' leads to a modern campus full of history

The Breda Seeligkazerne has been transformed into an educational campus of De Rooi Pannen. The historical military building complex has been transformed into a modern educational facility – but one that cherishes the past. Preserving the historical character of the buildings required Kuijpers to be creative in engineering and executing contemporary installation work.

The Seeligkazerne consists of buildings from the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the youngest are about eighty years old. Various buildings have been demolished, the most culturally and historically valuable buildings are being reused. For example, the Grote Arsenaal is home to the Hospitality course (complete with hotel-restaurant), the Kleine Arsenaal will soon be 'owned' by the Tourism & Leisure course, which will have a travel agency and a large activity hall there, among other things.

Building 'puzzle'

Kuijpers is responsible for the design, engineering and implementation of all electrical and mechanical engineering work, including the associated building automation and a fire alarm system. Not a straightforward job, because the complex contained numerous differences in ceilings and floorboards due to its age, a puzzle of small spaces and many old construction parts, structures and materials. The project therefore made a strong demand on the flexibility, creativity and expertise of all fitters.

Installations in the attic

One of the challenges: the piping (such as wall sockets) that must be installed at and under authentic brick walls without damaging them. The installation of the air handling units is also a feat. Where these are normally installed on flat roofs, Kuijpers opted for attic spaces due to a lack of flat roof sections. The fitters made grilles in the roofs for the necessary ventilation. “Of course out of sight due to the heritage status of the buildings,” says project leader Mark van Leijsen of Kuijpers. This was also a meticulous job in terms of logistics and planning. “The buildings offered little space to transport the modern air handling units to the attics in one go. We brought them up in parts and assembled and installed them on site.”

Critical research

Another challenge: the technical installation in the future kitchen of the Hospitality course, as part of a hotel restaurant on campus. Equipped with quite a few cooking appliances, it was obvious to install large ducts for blowing in and sucking in air. However, this would affect the historical character of the space. Kuijpers decided to critically investigate what capacity was actually needed, based on cooking education at other locations of De Rooi Pannen. This showed that all the cooking appliances are never on at the same time. Kuijpers engineered a new, optimal ventilation solution with a limited number of extractor hoods, in keeping with the building and the desire to keep energy costs as low as possible.

Subtly concealed

The building section where the hotel is located has sixteen hotel rooms. In order to preserve the charm of history, De Rooi Pannen wanted to keep the old wooden beams visible. This was at odds with the strict fire safety requirements for hotels. Kuijpers solved this by installing new ceiling panels with fire detectors between the wooden beams, subtle enough to allow the old beams to come into their own.