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Category 1: Buildings
Project description
The Rustenhove rest and nursing home is located
in the rural municipality of Ledegem, Belgium. After
completion, the project will provide residence to 126
seniors.
The existing part of the retreat consists of three main
wings of three floors which come together under an
angle of 120°.
The building project embraces, on the one hand, a
thorough renovation of two wings of the existing building
and, on the other hand, the construction of a new
wing as well as the construction of an additional level
above the existing building. The total project comprises
approximately 8,360 sqm. The new wing also has
a basement in order to provide space for technical
services.
The new wing has a twisted façade which folds open
towards the street – it gives the façade a dynamic
emanation to emphasise the innovative nature of the
provided health care. The closed twisted façade of the
1st and 2nd levels is accompanied by a sloped curtain
wall at the head of the building. Behind this façade
one finds the living rooms. This way the residents may
experience the special façade also from the inside and
above this they can obtain an overview of the activity on
the car park, the inner garden and the main reception
area. The entrance is situated on the ground floor,
under the curtain wall. It is an open space working as a
crossroads: it provides the entrance to the new wings
but at the same time also offers access to the existing
wings via an existing connection tunnel.
Structural description
The slabs of the ground floor and 1st and 2nd floor
cantilever in relation to each other follow three arcs of
circles. These circles meet each other at the transition
between the living room and bed wing and their radius
decreases with the level (46.85 m for the ground floor
and 30.80 m for the second floor). The edge of each
floor is supported by a concrete wall with the form of
the envelope of a cone. To make sure that the analyses
of the internal loads of the wall were correct, the wall
surface was divided into a regulating structure. This way
it was also possible to make a shell model as well as a
model made up of columns. The increase of the internal
loads caused by global imperfection was analysed by
means of a second order calculation; thereby, reduced
stiffness was applied to take into account the effects of
cracked concrete.
The in situ poured slab above the ground floor with
a thickness of 35 cm supports this concrete bracing
wall as well as the superjacent masonry corridor wall
while spanning 7.20 x 9.50 sqm. At the back, the
new construction cantilevers 3 m over the existing
connection tunnel by means of a slab with a thickness of
61 cm. And at the front and side, the slab is 50 cm thick
to take the loads of the column of the superstructure
and to transfer them to two sloped round columns in the
façade and the load bearing wall of the tunnel. Punching
reinforcement was therefore required.
The slab above the first floor is an in situ poured slab
with a thickness of 35 cm based on the span of 8 m
x 9 m, the back side cantilevering by 3 m and the
long-term deflections. The slab above the 2nd floor –
spanning 8 m by 10 m – serves as a transfer level for
the recessing load bearing façade of the 3rd level.
Due to the fact that the glass façade is a delicate
finish as regards deflections, an accurate study of the
deformations was made by mean of a CDD calculation.
The influence of the cumulated deflections of the two
transfer levels as well as the influence of the different
stages of construction were thereby taken into account.
The maximum additional deflection was limited to L/500.
Software: Scia Engineer
Rest and Nursing Home “Rustenhove” - Ledegem, Belgium
