104
X1
Category 1: Buildings
The existing Vredenburgnusic music centre in Utrecht,
the Netherlands, will be extended with 4 new music
halls. The new music theatre will house different music
biotopes, classical, jazz and pop music. The jazz and
pop biotopes in other locations in Utrecht are outdated
and no longer live up to the modern demands.
Above the new “Pop Hall”, the “Crossover Hall” and the
“Jazz Hall” will be situated. The new (round) “Chamber
Music Hall” will be built as a cantilever above the
existing “Symphony Hall”.
Because of the large spans, the new halls will be built
of steel. The steel structures will be supported by two
connected concrete cores, which form the backbone of
the building. The foyers, restaurants and plaza functions
are situated between the halls as a public area.
Owing to the demands regarding noise, the halls will
be made with a box-in-box structure. The Jazz Hall
and the Crossover Hall are suspended on top of the
building and span approx. 20 m from core to façade.
Heavy columns have been integrated into the façade
to support these halls. The span has been constructed
with trusses, which are part of the outer box.
The Chamber Music Hall has been suspended from the
concrete core as a cantilevering element, which places
it above the existing Symphony Hall without coming into
contact with it. Therefore, these two halls are completely
separated and structure-borne sound cannot occur.
Since both concrete cores have halls which cantilever
16 m, horizontal deformations occur in the building. As a
result of the cantilevers, the cores bend approx. 40 mm.
This deformation has been calculated and the final
outfitting will take this deformation into account.
A lot of attention has also been paid to the dynamic
behaviour of the floors of the halls.
For the expedition zone on level -1, a 6.5 m-deep
building pit has been made. The building pit was built
from steel sheet piles and underwater concrete.
At the location of the cores, the high foundation
pressure is absorbed by grout injection piles, fitted with
a permanent steel tube with a large bearing capacity.
The chosen building method ensures that the ground
water outside the building pit is not influenced, in order
to meet all the demands set for the vicinity.
Use of Scia Engineer
The entire main bearing structure has been designed
with the finite element program Scia Engineer.
The concrete walls and floors have been entered as 2D
elements. The concrete beams and the steel structure
have been designed with 1D bar elements. The
foundation piles have been entered as springs.
With the calculation model, the entire force distribution
of the main bearing structure has been analysed and
the forces have been determined for the following
engineering process.
The 3D model was also the basis of the calculations for
the construction phase of the project.
Music Palace - Utrecht, The Netherlands
Software: Scia Engineer
