Customized standard

It's always fascinating when something very individual and remarkably appealing emerges from a standard material through just a few adjustments. This is exactly what the employees of NOE's Dutch branch accomplished.

Initially, NOE was tasked with supplying some standard textured formliners with the Sinus motif. These create uniform waves with an amplitude of 1.8 cm. They were intended to enhance the facade of an industrial facility constructed by the energy company Taqa from Abu Dhabi in Holland. However, when NOE's employees saw the company's logo - a schematic representation of a horse's head - they recognized an opportunity to reflect Taqa's corporate identity simply on the facade. They proposed to the planner to depict the logo and lettering in the concrete using the textured formliners. This idea greatly pleased the client.

Support in planning and execution

To implement this, only a few steps were necessary. Instead of immediately fixing the texture mold in the formwork, the Dutch NOE employees cut out the horse head motif and company logo from a standard mold using a CNC machine. They ensured that the cutting edges had an inclination angle of 10 degrees, ensuring good detachment of the concrete from the formwork mold. Subsequently, they glued each motif onto a carrier plate. These were then placed on the vibrating table at the precast concrete plant and filled with concrete. Once hardened, the mold could be removed, revealing the horse head or company logo. Today, the concrete prefabricated parts, manufactured with the help of the unprocessed textured formliners, as well as the plates displaying the logo or company name, adorn the facade of the office building. They appear to wrap around the object like a finely textured band. With their suggestions, the employees of NOE have demonstrated their creativity and shown that even with standard formliners, an individual concrete relief can be realized.