Now that a 30 m high observation tower guarantees a beautiful view of the area, nature and architecture lovers will now enjoy the Lommel Sahara even more. Visitors can admire the beauty of this unspoilt piece of nature from three levels. With the lookout tower, the city of Lommel wants to enhance the experience of the landscape. After all, the Lommel Sahara is part of the Regional Landscape ‘de Lage Kempen’ and attracts many hikers every year. The city of Lommel and the Agency for Nature and Forests turned to MaMu architects to design the tower. MaMu collaborated with an Ateliereen Architects from Eindhoven, which had previously designed several other lookout towers. The construction consists of six connected triangles that are surrounded by approximately four kilometers of ship’s rope. By wrapping the rope alternately tight and loose around the tower, a subtle reference is created to the wavy lines of the Sahara.
When climbing the tower, the visitor looks at the landscape between the ropes. Both the color of the cedar wood and the color of the hot-dip galvanized steel will level off over time, making the structure blend even more into the landscape over time. Visitors have three levels to enjoy the scenery. Less mobile tourists can comfortably reach the first platform, from which they get a beautiful view of the lakes. From then on it goes up for a tough climb of about 150 steps. The little ones have also been taken into account, because there are viewing holes in the 1.20 m high wall on the upper plateau, so that children can also peer into the distance. The tower is located along a pond in loose, sandy soil. Yet the soft soil was not a problem. The difficulty was mainly to keep the high structure stable on the smallest possible surface area. This is done using pile foundations. The tower has been accessible to the general public since April 1, 2015.
AB Associates
AB Associates (Hasselt, Belgium) is a structural engineering office that teams up with clients, architects, and contractors to achieve the goals of every construction project. AB Associates’ approach is based on strict planning and close monitoring, such that projects can be realized within budget and within the agreed time frame.
Starting from the architectural plan, the AB Associates engineering team develops a structural design using the BuildSoft Diamonds software (which AB Associates engineers have been using for about 15 years). During the structural design analysis, much attention is paid to the feasibility of the design. As a part of that approach, the AB Associates drawing teams meticulously translate the structural design into accurate, reliable, easy to read and practically applicable construction drawings.
The AB Associates project portfolio is quite extensive and varied. AB Associates is active in the areas of residential construction (apartment buildings) and non-residential construction (office buildings, police stations, school buildings, residential care centers, …), and is actively using the BuildSoft Diamonds software to develop steel, concrete and wood structural designs.
Customer since : 2003
