Hollandia Hal 11

Industrial buildings are usually standard structures and, therefore, seldom of architectural interest. Halls 10 and 11 of steel company Hollandia near Rotterdam are the proverbial exception. If driving over the Van Brienenoord bridge and looking east you surely see Europe's largest roofed slipway. To compete with this huge structure it was decided to use an optical effect. The architects came up with a color palette consisting of five shades of blue applied in rectangles set within horizontal bands that run the full width of all façades. In collaboration with Corus steel, four new lighter shades of blue were distilled from the existing standard dark blue. The five colours harmonize with one another in terms of tone, saturation and degree of blackness. The detailing of the steel façade panels is still clearly visible from a large distance owing to the deep profile of the panels. The sheet-metal sills that run between the bands of colour are made of the same sheet material as the pane