City of water and greenery
The capital of Gelderland is a pleasant shopping city, surrounded by lush parks with beautiful fountains. As early as 1885, beautiful fountain ornaments were created in the center, which still work and give Janssingel an extremely elegant ambiance.
Several locations also have modern, imposing fountains in operation. It’s safe to say that Arnhem is connected to water, and not just by the Lower Rhine River flowing through it.
The City Hall – inaugurated 1968 – also features a beautiful, formal water feature with ditto fountains. The fountains are part of the building which is a National Monument. Last year it was decided to renovate and for this purpose Rots-Maatwerk from Brummen in Gelderland was called in, which has also carried out recent new construction and renovations of other fountains for Arnhem.
City Hall fountain completely renovated
Part of the renovation included replacing the existing 52 fountain heads for new ones, for this, Rock Bespoke engaged AUGA, as our disciplines for certain projects complement Rock Bespoke nicely.
Replacing fountain heads seems simple, but there’s more to it than just swapping out old heads for new ones. The technology of decades ago is not the technology of today.
Fountains have become more efficient and are now made entirely of stainless steel, which has a positive influence on the required capacity, pressure and power consumption. It had to be determined whether the existing pump was suitable for this purpose. A wrong “match” can have destructive consequences for a pump, this must be prevented. You can safely leave that process to AUGA.
Details make the difference
The Township’s archives were needed to find out the technical data of the existing pump and fountain system. With that data, the new fountain system could be determined.
Upon inspection, the existing centrifugal pump no longer achieved the required capacity and is being replaced with a new and more efficient pump, which is fully adapted to the new fountain system.
Renovation is not only renewing but also improving efficiency to get energy consumption down, with the logical result of decreasing power costs.
Foam jet fountains
Foam jet fountains were chosen. This type of fountain head mixes water with air and generates a “white water” effect, which is much more visible than a full jet of water alone.
Moreover, this type of fountain requires little water and pressure to achieve the desired fountain appearance, not unimportant when it comes to 52 fountains. The super smooth polished stainless steel fountain head certainly contributes to this.
Using stainless steel is preferable to usual bronze fountain heads. Not only is efficiency better, R.V.S. retains a beautiful “look” unlike bronze fountain heads, which turn grayish gray over time.
Our entire program of fountain heads is available in R.V.S. 304 and R.V.S. 316 for fountain statues from 0.2 meters to more like 100 meters high.
The cooperation with Rots-Maatwerk has also been to the full satisfaction of all parties for this project, Arnhem can again enjoy its iconic fountains for many years to come.