Heineken, the globally known beer brand, wanted to design a spectacular entrance to the Heineken Experience Centre in Amsterdam. To be able to create this, the existing building was renovated, and the old stables were turned into a large welcome area. The contractor company Salverda was responsible for this major renovation project. Architect Ideal Projects came up with a design involving thousands of Heineken bottles suspended from the ceiling to create a spectacular visual display in the entrance.
Walraven were approached by Salverda to come up with a solution for fixing the 11,000 Heineken bottles to the lobby ceiling. Salverda was a great partner during this project, with whom we collaborated during the design, testing and installation phases of the project. The design required a tailor-made solution that would securely hold the delicate glass bottles in place.
Walraven designed, produced and partly prefabricated a customised solution consisting of two parts. The first part holds the bottle, and the second part allows the bottles to be attached to the ceiling.
For the first part, we developed and produced a special rubber insert together with Jefleks, our rubber factory in Turkey. The rubber insert had to meet several criteria: the perfect shape, the right hardness of the rubber, the best way to hold the bottle, and of course, easy to assemble. The end result was a rubber insert placed in the neck of the bottle and tightened with a bolt connection. Upon tightening it expands slightly in the neck of the bottle allowing for a secure hold.
To attach the bottles to the ceiling we created a Walraven RapidRail® fixing rail design. The lobby’s ceiling had a double-wall structure and a bottom layer with cut-outs for the bottles. By using Walraven Rapidrail® in combination with the Walraven Hammerfix connector, it was possible to place the bottles in long rows onto the rails. With the need to fix 11,000 bottles, the twist-in, fast-fit Walraven Hammerfix was an essential part of the construction which helped with a quick and effective assembly. The Walraven RapidRail® channel was also used for fixing the lighting points within the design.
Find out more about our fast-fit lightweight channel system Walraven RapidRail® fixing rail or contact us to see how we can help design fixing solutions for your projects.
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