Peter Rice (1935-1992)

The purpose of this post is to present Peter Rice, one of the most outstanding facade engineers ever. This great Irish engineer contributed in facades and structures disciplines with important innovations, through his involvement in projects considered icons of structures and façades nowadays.

He took on his professional career as Structural Engineer in Ove Arup  firm from 1956 to 1977, afterwards he founded his own engineering firm, partnering with Martin Francis and Ian Ritchie.

The following list is a summary of his vision:

• He believed the best buildings are the result of a symbiotic relationship between the architect and the engineer, where the engineer is the objective inventor and the architect the creative input.
• He was convinced that there was nothing mysterious about the process of innovation. He was never satisfied with mundane solutions. He took risks during the early stages of the design process.
• He combined advanced structural analysis techniques with investigations of materials in order to achieve the best structural systems.
• Peter confessed to learn just what he needed to know when he needed it.

According to Rice, the roles of the engineer are:

• The use of the engineer’s understanding of materials and structure to make real the architectural designs.
•  Innovation and support the creativity of architects.

Sydney Opera House (1973, Jorn Utzon)

Louvre Pyramid (Paris, 1988, Ming Pei)

Lloyd’s of London (London, 1986, Richard Rogers)

Stansted London Airport (1991)

Cité des Sciences at La Villette (Paris, 1987, Adrien Fainsilber)

The Centre Pompidou adopted the gerberette solution to achieve the long spans required to support a heavy library that could be moved anywhere in the building. One of Peter’s main contributions was his insistence on the use of cast steel for these pieces. The gerberette acted as a short beam propped on a circular column and tied down at the ened with a circular bar.

The curtain wall in the Cité des Sciences at La Villette has been the origin of the inexhaustible source of inspiration for the point-supported glass facades worlwide. The main innovations are set out as follows:

• Drilled glass panels with countersunk holes for point fixings supports.
• Spherical bearings keeps all loads in the glass plane and eliminate local bending effects.
• Horizontal cable trusses resists out-of-plane wind forces.

In 1992 he was awarded the Royal Gold Metal for Architecture by the Royal Institute of British Architects for his achievements which let the advancement of architecture.

In 1994, the Harvard University established the Peter Rice Prize in recognition of the ideals and principles that he represented.

After his early death, architects and engineers lost an important source of inspiration and innovation, however, actual designs are still based upon his principles described on his books, as a legacy for the future generations.

An Engineer Imagines (Peter Rice)

Structural Glass (Peter Rice&Hugh Dutton)

Fire Insulation System Buryat EI 120

Rockwool insulation panels being installed onto the facade

When you have your own business, your boss is the most demanding one: The Market. Only if you offer competitive and innovative products, the market will award you. This is the case of Buryat ( htt://www.buryat.es ), a Catalan company located in Barcelona, which is specialized in rockwool fire insulation technical solutions integrated in curtain wall systems. They invest to improve their products according to the observation market needs. Their system aims to minimize the number of pieces and reduce the assembly operation on site.

All of their systems are proprietary, according to the European Standards.






The new version of Buryat EI120, as solution for 1 meter fringe between slab concrete and curtain wall, is formed by four elements described as follows:
 High density rockwool insulation panel of 50 mm thickness.
 Espiga ACR: bracket between panels.
 Square profile: anchorage for horizontal panel on the lower slab side.
 Angled: anchorage for vertical panel internal aluminium frame.

The system is formed by a rockwool vertical panel inside the aluminium frame, afterwards two horizontal panel situated one on the top and one on the lower side slab. The lower panel is anchoraged to the slab through the square profile. The top panel is fixed between the concrete slab and vertical panel.
The rockwool panels are anchoraged to the concrete slab, in order to achieve the independence between fire insulation system and curtain wall.

Finally, the aluminium mullions are covered with a new rockwool panel through the Espiga bracket, providing continuity all across the facade. At the top area, the same rockwool panel is fixed against the vertical panel through the espiga bracket.
The free spaces between the rockwool panels and the slab concrete must be filled with intumescent sealants.

The insulation fire system integrated in a curtain wall passed the test, achieving 120 minuts of stability and integrity against fire.

1st step of the sequence of installation

2nd step of the sequence of installation

3rd step of the sequence of installation

4th step of the sequence of installation

 

Torre Agbar (Barcelona; Jean Nouvel, 2005)

Torre Agbar night view

The Torre Agbar was designed by Jean Nouvel in assotiation with B720 architects. The building of 144 meters in height is located between Avinguda Diagonal and Carrer Badajoz, near la Plaça de les Glòries in Barcelona.

According to Jean Novel, the shape of the Torre Agbar was inspired by the mountains of Montserrat and the shape of a geyser rising into the air.

The Agbar Tower envelope is a double skin facade with a maintenance catwalk within.

The double skin presents an inner leaf formed by windows within a steel frame and the outer leaf is formed by glass louvres supported onto supporting steel frames.

The design makes easier the façade installation, because the spandrel metallic cladding and the glass louvres were assemblied from the maintenance catwalk. This improved the site safety conditions whereas supposed a cost saving in lifting devices.

The glass louvres supporting frame and the catwalk were installed from the scaffoldings. Afterwards, the  catwalk was employed as a platform for the glass louvres installation, later used as the vertical protection for the rest of the façade works. Finally, any maintenance work can be done from the catwalk, being safety and accessible for any façade component.

One of the outstanding elements of the building is the façade lightening system. The tower has more than 4,500 luminous LED devices operating independently that enables the generation of images on the  envelope of the tower. The system is capable of creating 16 million colors.

Agbar Tower has achieved to become one of the landmarks in Barcelona, which is very meritorious  as  being surrounded by the projects carried out by the greatest architect ever, Antoni Gaudí.

View of the Barcelona from the maintenance catwalk

Installation works taking place from the scaffolding

Installation of the glass louvres taking place from the maintenance catwalk

Burj Khalifa: un ejemplo de aplicación de sellantes de silicona

El autor del blog durante su visita al Burj Khalifa

Resumen del artículo publicado en el Boletín Electrónico de la Construcción el pasado 11 de enero de 2010, sobre la aplicación de sellantes de silicona. El título del artículo es: Las siliconas de Dow Corning protegen la torre Burj Khalifa de las duras condiciones del desierto.

La torre Burj Khalifa, antes llamada Burj Dubai, se eleva 818 metros por encima del nivel del suelo y se ve desde cualquier punto en un radio de 95 km. En este edificio de 160 plantas se encuentran la mezquita más alta del mundo en el piso 158 y la piscina más alta del mundo en el piso 78.

El Burj Khalifa establece el récord de la instalación de fachada con materiales como aluminio, silicona y vidrio . La fachada está formada por más 24.000 paneles de revestimiento en una superficie total de muro cortina de 132.000 m2.

El material de revestimiento se elaboró de manera especial empleando técnicas avanzadas de ingeniería, incorporando vidrios de altas prestaciones energéticas, material de sellado de silicona y adhesivos estructurales, parteluces de aluminio y antepechos de acero texturado con aletas tubulares verticales de acero inoxidable.

Ron Fillmore, director ejecutivo global del sector de la construcción de Dow Corning explicaba: “Hemos participado en muchas de las construcciones de edificios famosos en todo el mundo durante más de 60 años, por medio del acristalamiento estructural de muro-cortina, el montaje y protección contra diferentes condiciones climáticas, el montaje de vidrio de aislamiento y el sellado interior. Esa experiencia previa junto con la eficacia probada de nuestra tecnología de siliconas, han tenido un papel crucial en este proyecto,”

El proyecto era único en todos los aspectos: el tamaño, la complejidad y la cooperación de una industria plurinacional. Las duras condiciones ambientales proporcionaron otro desafío único, dado que los materiales de construcción tienen que resistir la prueba del tiempo en el desierto.

“En Dow Corning estamos encantados con este tipo de desafíos. Se ajustan perfectamente a las propiedades de nuestras siliconas, que tienen una duración increíble y son ideales para condiciones ambientales adversas como ésas,” comentaba Jean-Paul Hautekeer, director de Marketing Global de proyectos de construcción. Las soluciones para la torre Burj Khalifa incluyeron los servicios de apoyo a proyectos globales de Dow Corning, de probada eficacia, que se comercializan actualmente como un programa integrado y totalmente dirigido al cliente llamado “Quality Bond”.

“El programa Dow Corning Quality Bond eleva la adhesión y sellado con silicona a un nuevo nivel, por medio de la introducción de un conjunto de servicios y compromisos, relevantes para todos los miembros de la cadena de especificación del proyecto de construcción. Ofrece eficacia garantizada y tranquilidad,” afirmaba Tim Efthimiady, director comercial del sector de la construcción en Europa y Oriente Medio. La torre Burj Khalifa ha sido la oportunidad ideal para ofrecer nuestro programa Quality Bond a las diferentes empresas ligadas al proyecto, desde el contratista de los vidrios y muro cortina hasta el contratista principal, arquitecto y consultor”.



Vista del Burj Khalifa y alrededores

Gas Natural Torre Marenostrum in Barcelona (EMBT, 2006)

Night view of the Gas Natural Tower

One of most wonderful modern buildings in Barcelona city is the Gas Natural Tower located in the Barceloneta. This project was designed by the Catalan architect Enric Miralles and the Italian architect Benedetta Tagliabue.

The building is clearly divided in the three areas: tower, aircraft carrier and the waterfall.

The singularity of the project is the enhanced external reflection of the glass, which appears to be studied in detail by the architects. The aim seems to achieve a certain grade of distortion on the external tempered glass. Distorsion is commonly reduced as much as possible because it is perceived as an inadequate quality, even there is a standard regulating the level of distortion on tempered glass. It appears the project is not in accordance with the standards, but it is done in purpose.

The waterfall is an interesting facade for two reasons, envelope's geommetry and facade structural system. The point supported glass system is formed by the following components:

•Steel sub structure fixed onto the slabs .
•Stainless steel component providing allowances to align the facade.
•Spider glass bracket.
•Stainless steel bolt suited for structural glass.
•Tempered Solar control glass with drills to be supported on the bolt.

Wood patterns were employed to get precisely the glass panes dimensions due to the complexity of the design.

The building can be admired from the costline as one of the landmarks in the district.

Wood model of the structure





Waterfall facade view during its construction. The wood patterns can be seen within the sub structure.



 

Criterios para la elección de un vidrio adecuado

1. DIMENSIONES: que sea posible fabricar. Según la composición del vidrio requerido sea realizable según las tecnologías de transformación que se disponen.

2. ASPECTO: Reflexión exterior (Re).

3. ILUMINACIÓN: Transmisión Luminosa (TL), que sea la adecuada para el uso del espacio que se proyecta.

4. SEGURIDAD: cumplir la normativa que corresponda. España dispone del CTE, en el Documento Básico SU, Seguridad de Utilización.

5. COMFORT: condensaciones, radiación ultravioleta, aislamiento acústico y temperatura cara interior son los parámetros a tener controlados para obtener un diseño adecuado.

6. AHORRO ENERGÉTICO: Factor Solar (FS) y transmitancia (U) son las dos variables a considerar. España está regulado por el CTE, en el Documento Básico DE-HE Ahorro de Energía, que indica los valores de FS y U según la situación geogràfrica.

Teatre Nacional de Catalunya (Ricardo Bofill,1996)

Vista desde el interior de la fachada principal del Teatre Nacional de Catalunya

 

La fachada de vidrio del Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, obra del Arquitecto Ricardo Bofill, es un muro cortina abotonado formado por vidrio transparente y una subestructura metálica formada por pilares y jácenas de perfil tubular.

 

El muro cortina está formado por los siguientes elementos, desde el exterior al interior:

• Vidrio templado con taladros de medidas 2mx2m.
• Rótulas de fijación del vidrio en acero inoxidable.
• Manecilla de sujeción de rótulas en acero.
• Elemento regulador que une la manecilla a la jácena.
• Jácena metálica unida al pilar situada cada 2 metros.
• Pilar metálico situado cada 4 metros.

El sistema estructural es apoyado y rígido porqué las cargas gravitatorias y de viento, que genera cada placa de vidrio que está suspendida a través de las rótulas,son transmitidas al pilar metálico que está situado cada 4 m. a través de la jácena que sostiene la manecilla. La carga que recoge el pilar es conducida a la estructura principal edificio.

La manecilla está unida a la jácena por un elemento de regulación que permite anivelar el plano de fachada y corregir las desviaciones propias de los pilares y jácenas. Estos elementos de transición son imprescindibles porqué el acero tiene unas tolerancias superiores al vidrio. Por tanto, este elemento es clave en la puesta en obra, donde hay que preveer y controlar las tolerancias de los diferentes materiales que forman la fachada.

Un aspecto a destacar es el acabado blanco de los pilares y jácenas metálicas, que disminuye las tensiones y deformaciones por dilatación del acero. En el caso de ser un acabado oscuro, incrementa las dilataciones por las variaciones de temperatura, incrementando tensiones y deformaciones.