Bridge Operator House Installed
Today amid great public interest the bridge operator house for the 'Paint Roller' bridge in Haarlem has been installed. Surrounded by the press architect Thijs Asselbergs and his son and designer Abel Asselbergs watched how the small building was hoisted over the water into its place.
Every day thousands of people in Haarlem make use of the 'Langebrug', a bridge that is nicknamed as the 'Paint Roller'. This bridge has been designed in 1995 by Thijs Asselbergs (aTA), but all that time it was lacking an operator house. Until this week, when the design of Thijs Asselbergs his 14-years old son Abel was realised. The municipality has selected his design out of four submitted proposals. The operator house is an abstract round volume, based on the architectural language of the bridge.
The volume has been placed on an elevated tripod cantilevering from the bridge. This is to ensure the safety of both the water traffic and the bridge keeper.
As design & build partner, Octatube has been involved early in the design process. An integral design came out, with a lightweight facade construction and a slender structure. The bridge keeper has a free view because of a horizontal ring of hot bent glass panels.
The high degree of prefabrication in the Octatube factory (see picture below) has resulted in a very swift installation.
Different Dutch media were impressed by the young designer and the installation of the bridge operator house, and there are several video shootings. A selection of the online news and videos: Architectenweb,Architectuur.org, Hart van Nederland, RTV Noord-Holland, the Haarlems Dagblad and the Wijkkrant.
