Undulating roof for new Passageway Tilburg

In the coming years the city centre of Tilburg will be made more attractive with a number of large-scale renewal and intervention projects. One of these projects is a new connection between the Heuvelstraat and the Pieter Vreedeplein. This is where Octatube is closely involved in the design and realization of a spectacular new shopping passageway with an undulating roof.



The undulating roof structure has a length of 55 meters and is composed of a diamond-shaped grid of steel strips onto which twisted glass units will be fixed. The passageway is situated more than 9 meters above ground floor level and also slightly hovers above the adjacent buildings. On the square side the roof merges into a large canopy that has a more closed appearance of aluminium cladding with a number of small roof lights.

The architectural firm Rijnboutt has challenged Octatube to push the boundaries of cold twisting the glass units, in order to express the deflections of the roof as much as possible. Structurally, the maintenance load proved to be an additional complicating factor since the undulating roof is walkable for maintenance works.



The roof is designed by Rijnboutt architects who are also responsible for the transformation of the former V&D building. The entire project that includes a Hudson’s Bay department store will be completed in September of this year.