A flexible topfloor system with integrated heating and cooling for the Infra+ floorsystem

Adaptability and flexibility are frequently used but not well defined terms in the building industry. Due to the complexity of the building process and the wide variety of people and interests, adaptability and flexibility have different meaning and value for the different participants in relation to comfort and financial aspects. Therefore we determined that the starting-point is that "flexibility must not be a option but has to be a standard feature of a building component at no or little additional cost". This has been the main goal of designing a top floor for the Infra+ floor. The design has been divided in several stages: - The SlimBouwen® philosophy was used to define a design strategy for building products - The Infra+ floor system is one of the existing products that fits very well the SlimBouwen® philosophy but does not completely fulfill all criteria. This is mainly due to the fact that the existing top floors for Infra+ do not meet the expected adaptability and flexibility standards, especially when heating and cooling need to be integrated. - The defined design strategy led to a completely new design of a top floor which integrated heating and cooling. The new top floor is based on the SlimBouwen® philosophy of prof. dr. ir. J.J.N. Lichtenberg from the University of Eindhoven. This philosophy states among others that the nowadays building industry is very conservative, inefficient with space and materials, produces lots of waste and that innovations are mainly based on "Innovation by Addition". Designing a top floor system for the Infra+ floor according to this theory proves that a highly flexible and adaptable system is possible and, not necessarily an option but can be a standard feature of the product at competitive cost.