Sanquin is developing a Health & Innovation District (Hid) around its headquarters in Amsterdam. On this campus, companies and startups in transfusion medicine, oncology, immunology, and hematology can grow, collaborate, and share facilities. One of the buildings was recently renovated by Kuijpers, who handled the design and the structural and technical implementation.
Max Noordanus, project manager at Sanquin: “With the development of the Hid, we’re offering companies modern lab spaces to conduct or continue their research.” In 2021, Sanquin explored whether the more than fifty-year-old, vacant CDT building in the Hid could be transformed into a suitable working environment with laboratories, offices, and shared spaces like a pantry and meeting rooms. That turned out to be feasible, and after drafting a requirements program and a preliminary design, Sanquin selected Kuijpers at the end of 2021 as the main contractor for the final design and execution.
Project manager Maarten de Jong from Kuijpers: “We deliberately carried out this assignment in a construction team because short lines and flexibility were essential, especially due to the tight construction timeline.” The task list was extensive: designing and realizing two thousand square meters of laboratories, offices, and other spaces, including flooring, walls, doors, windows, ceilings. The façade also needed to be renewed.
Kuijpers also tackled a new sprinkler system, building automation, and all electrical and mechanical work. During construction, a mid-project design revision was needed. “A future tenant signed their lease during that phase and brought specific requirements that impacted the existing design,” Max explains, “so we had to make adjustments.” Nine months after receiving the assignment, Kuijpers delivered the shell of the renovated CDT building.
Besides the design revision, the project faced other challenges. Maarten: “We had to take the building’s structure into account. It’s an existing building with concrete beams and lightweight roof panels made of aerated concrete. These aren’t ideal for mounting modern technical installations. We factored that into the design and engineering, which resulted in the high-quality lab spaces we’ve now delivered.” Another challenge was the long lead times for both structural and installation components and materials. “We solved that by working with advance orders,” says Maarten.
Max: “We selected Kuijpers partly because of their strong track record and their proposed approach of ‘developing together, moving forward together.’ That approach didn’t disappoint. We continuously discussed our big and small wishes and what was and wasn’t feasible.” Maarten illustrates this with an example: “In the CDT building, there were several existing air handling units that, after a thorough cleaning and some modifications, still worked well.
It would’ve been a waste to discard them. Collectively, their ventilation capacity was sufficient, but individually, some fell short. So together with Sanquin’s technicians, we created a protocol for air handling in the CDT building. Based on that, we determined which units to activate at which times. This way, Sanquin can fully meet today’s ventilation needs using the existing system.”