Hotel Noord in Carolinensiel
between tradition and modernity
Since autumn 2024, the fishing village of Carolinensiel, founded in 1730, has gained an architectural addition: the Hotel Noord. Located directly on the Harle River and just a five-minute drive from the North Sea beach, the newly created ensemble with a wellness area, event and conference rooms, café, and restaurant offers ideal conditions for slowing down and escaping everyday stress. The outdoor area also contributes to this, combining appealing landscape design with high-quality drainage solutions from ACO.
Commissioned by the HIIVE Hotels Group, the hotel complex was built on the site of a former farmstead, which is evident upon closer inspection. The responsible architectural firm Angelis & Partner from Oldenburg renovated one of the existing farm buildings at its core and upgraded it to meet today's standards and new usage requirements. Additionally, the existing building was expanded with four new buildings: three guest houses and the U-shaped main building.
Homage to north german building culture
Inspired by North German architecture, the planners incorporated traditional, region-specific features and combined them with contemporary elements. The red brick facades are crowned by a slightly protruding gable and opened to the outside with large glass surfaces on the ground floor and slender window formats, balconies, and loggias on the upper floors. In this way, the individual buildings, despite their different construction years, create a unified overall appearance that harmoniously blends into the village structure and surrounding landscape.
Linear drainage as an integral part of landscape architecture
"Both the buildings and the open spaces are very modern and high-quality," says Björn Marks, the construction manager responsible for civil engineering at the construction company August Hotze GmbH & Co. KG from Oldenburg. "In the outdoor area, there is a stormwater retention basin designed as a recreational element with corresponding pathways, which is part of the drainage system," adds Michael Geinitz, the responsible consultant from the WaterTech company ACO.
Stormwater is collected on the terraces of the individual rooms, main entrances, and the entire terrace area of the café and restaurant using the ACO DRAIN® Multiline NX channel system. It then flows into the property's sewer system and is directed to the stormwater retention basin, where it is temporarily stored and can seep away. "In the event of an extreme weather event, there is an emergency overflow at the rainwater retention basin that directs excess rainwater into the Harle, which in turn flows into the North Sea," explains the ACO consultant.
"Michael Geinitz introduced us to the Multiline made from the new material NEXITE® – abbreviated NX – a high-performance concrete, and quickly convinced all the planning participants," recalls construction manager Marks. "The appearance that matches the high-quality paving, but above all the sustainable reasons, were decisive." The material is 100% recyclable and can be returned to the natural material cycle. The ACO DRAIN® Multiline NX, due to its mineral fine fillers, withstands extreme pressure and environmental stresses despite its low weight. "With the integrated Seal-in technology, a continuously watertight channel run is ensured during installation," explains Michael Geinitz. "The transitions between the channel elements do not need to be sealed afterwards. This saves considerable time on the construction site." And Björn Marks also reports positive experiences: "My colleague, who installed most of the channels, was absolutely thrilled with the easy handling. The system is simple and easy to process by hand, like a plug-and-play principle."
Just in time delivery
To offer design freedom in planning, all channel bodies can be combined with an extensive range of edge protection and gratings from the ACO DRAIN® design kit. Due to the high-quality design, the local conditions and environmental influences, composite channel gratings were chosen. The material has no issues with the North Sea air, is corrosion-resistant, and is not affected by road salt. "Since we at ACO like to recommend material homogeneity for gratings and edge protection, we can now deliver the channel system with matching edge rail," recalls Michael Geinitz
A total of 350 meters of the Multiline NX with composite gratings and edge rails were installed on the Hotel Noord site. Despite just four weeks of lead time, production was completed on schedule. "The delivery was made in three partial quantities and always exactly when we needed them," recalls construction manager Björn Marks and continues: "Planning, products, delivery, and cooperation with ACO – everything fit perfectly and worked wonderfully."
