Noise Wall and Car Showroom near Utrecht
This luxury car showroom is integrated into a 1.5-km long noise wall separating an industrial district from the A2 motorway near Utrecht. Motorists driving past at 120 km/h can catch a glimpse of the 5,000 m² display space inside through its all-glass front. The automotive theme is also exploited in the dynamic lines of the building. To keep the number of foundation piles down to a minimum, the architects developed a space frame spanning 9 m from pile to pile. The money saved was then spent on the visible upper parts of the building. The steel profiles of the space frame were fitted with overlapping panes of toughened glass sealed with hard rubber profiles, an arrangement which accommodates any temperature-related changes in the support frame.
