One of the biggest challenges for the team of the BOEHME^® SYSTEMS Vertriebs GmbH so far was the government building Kompleks Bangunan Jabatan Perdana Menteri in Darussalam in Brunei. However, in keeping with its motto “Where others stop, we just start“, the company tackled the task and handed over the newly covered elliptical cupola roof to the head of the construction authority in Brunei in March 2012.

After two and a half months of construction, the BOEHME^® SYSTEMS Vertriebs GmbH was able to deliver an architecturally unique and technically sophisticated roof construction in cooperation with the architectural agency LAH Consultants and the master craftsmen of RCB Singapur.

At the beginning there was the jungle

In the mid-1990s the building shell was almost completed. Various different reasons caused the construction to be stopped in 1997 and the parts of the building constructed up to then were neglected. In the subsequent years, the jungle reclaimed the construction site again. When the ongoing construction was agreed upon in 2011, the land first had to be made accessible for a second time.

Not all roofs are the same

On top of the aisles are arched roofs that can be covered with shingles relatively easily. The challenge consisted in covering the cupola roofs of the government building. These are not round but elliptical in terms of their ground plan. In addition, the guard rails and the treads had to be embedded into the inclined shingle roofing even though the former were actually made for straight shingle roofing.

In order to create a uniform final appearance of the roof surface it was necessary to create custom-made covering designs especially for this project. At the same time, the shingle covering itself had to be adapted to the geometry of the cupolas. And this was exactly the problem: The centra cupola in the middle is a hemisphere with six arrises. Both side cupolas are ellipsoids with six arrises as well. The distinctive feature of the ellipsoid is that the centre line of a surface circumscribed by the arrises does not run exactly vertical. The result of that are two unequal surface parts and an inclined covering design. With respect to the completed roof this geometry is not visible anymore.

Impressive appearance

The palace consists of one nave and two low aisles, each one of them with a large cupola. The extraordinarily spacious entrance is situated in the nave. The right low aisle offers space for a tremendous event hall. In the left low aisle one can find a huge conference hall and a theater. This ensemble is being completed by numerous offices, guest rooms and prestigious conference rooms.

Mounting shingles under tropical conditions

For this project the BOEHME^® SYSTEMS Vertriebs GmbH was contracted to produce 8,000 m² Boehme^® Systems Classic Shingles Type Efficient as well as several built-in units. RC Building Technology Pte Ltd under the leadership of Roy Chew was in charge of the construction on site.

Within a very tough scheduled installation period from November 2011 until end of March 2012 every day ten gangs of seven to eight employees each were busy on site. The BOEHME^® SYSTEMS Vertriebs GmbH trained the assemblers in charge for four weeks all in all. The project had to be finished as quickly as possible and without delays. And although the first day of the shingle covering fell on a tropical rainy day, this time was being used in a efficient way- for training. Under the supervision of the BOEHME^® SYSTEMS Vertriebs GmbH the foreman in charge built a model showing a section of the future cupola roof with a part of the necessary arris. The architect to whom the the training model was presented as Mock-up was enthused and gave green light to the installation.

At the beginning of the works the foremen built up the first segment. Then every cupola segment was mounted in a pyramid starting always from the centre. As after two days every foreman recruited their own gang of helpers, several segments could be mounted at the same time and they proceeded very fast. By the end of January more than 60 percent of the surface to be covered was already completed.

Good management takes every hurdle

Apart from the actual challenge of covering the cupola roof, some smaller problems arose as on every building site making the construction more difficult. But in order to ensure a continuous supply of shingles the BOEHME^® SYSTEMS Vertriebs GmbH sent a major part of the material even going so far as to use air freight. Also flat material in form of coil was being transported to Brunei to make the necessary edge parts on site.

To sum up, the completion date was able to be met by RC Building Technology thanks to very good management team and a lot of discipline on part of the workers.

Building blackboard

BOEHME^® SYSTEMS Product: Classic Shingle, Type Efficient
Amount: 8.000 m²
Material: Aluminium
Surface: Euramica Gold/Silber

Building owner: Jabatan Perdana Menteri
Architect: LAH Consultants
Installer: RCB Singapur