Rotterdam, Netherlands
Casino Middelkerke
Actiflow conducted a microclimate assessment for the Pompenburg project in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The municipality of Middelkerke, Belgium launched a design competition in 2020 for the design and construction of a new casino, consisting of a restaurant, event hall, foyer, hotel, casino, underground parking, sea wall and construction of public domain. Debuild, as a delegated builder, composed a design and construction team (1) with various designers and implementing parties to answer this design question. Actiflow was asked to contribute to this team with our knowledge regarding urban wind flow.
(1) The design team: ZJA – OZ – Delva – BB, experten Beers Nielsen, Cobe, VK Engineering, Actiflow, Witteveen+Bos, Plantec, Mint en Sertius en aannemer TM Furnibo–Democo
Case details
The challenge
The task regarding the wind climate near the casino is complicated. First, the site is located directly adjacent to the Belgian North Sea coast. This makes the site subjected to a large amount of wind. Second, the activities planned in the building (casino, hotel, event centre and restaurant) ask for a wind climate that is comfortable.
Results
In corporation with architect ZJA and landscape designer DELVA an iterative design process was performed, wherein the building volume and landscape were optimized in function of the local wind climate. This close corporation lead to a positive outcome where our design won the competition.
This unique building has been awarded the prestigious International Architecture Award 2022 and has won the World Landscape Architecture Award 2023; the ‘Honor Award’ in the category ‘Concept – Large design’. Finally, the Duincasino Middelkerke has been nominated for the WAN Future Projects – Mixed used Award 2021.
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