Alphen aan de Rijn
Length:
107 m
Width:
63 m
Height:
20 m
Why is this project important?
The importance of this project lies in its function of town
hall,
which should be embodied by the building.
With the
town hall the local authority indicates the intended
quality and ambition of the future development of the
town heart. The building must be open and inviting and it
should be functional and kind to its customers. Also of
great importance is the internal design of the public area,
which should be in harmony with both the new and the
old city centre.
Why is this project so special?
This project is made special by the shape of the different
parts of Pallet, SCO-roof and sloping back of the building.
Flowing rooflines and slim connecting structures create
structural shapes that are only to be
made visible by
spatial computer models.
The complex geometry of the building has been imported
into
AutoCAD,
from
the
computer
programme
Mechanical Desktop used by the architect. After some
adaptations and additions, this geometry has been read
into the calculating package ESA-Prima Win, that is used
by ABT. This link was ideal. For this project, the possibility
of importing a
DXF-file
was a very powerful feature.
Without this, it would have been almost impossible to put
the very complex structure (with nearly no repetition!)
into ESA-Prima Win,
without doing months of dull
work.
The geometry appeared complex to such an extent that it
was agreed upon to take the main dimensioning of the
architect as a starting point. These complex shapes make
it necessary to fix this
model at the start
with the
specifications completed. This then asks for a higher level
of detailing by the designing parties.
It is clear that this design produces complex calculations.
All eccentricities and complex geometry's create complex
calculations both for main as for detailed computation.
Use of ESA-Prima Win
Modules used:
3D Frame
3D Shell
Steel code check
Description of the technical questions to be solved
with ESA-Prima Win:
The complexity
of the structure
made it
virtually
impossible to calculate it in 2D.
All of the columns in the
facades have different (and differentiating, due to the
BLOB-architecture!) angels, thus introducing all different
kinds of horizontal forces on the structure. The influence
of these forces, plus the important structural behaviour of
the
whole building together,
made it necessary to use
ESA-Prima
Win. ut the
model has also been used for
studying possibilities. For example, the deformations of
the large cantilever with the two large steel trusses had to
be reduced, due to the glass facade. Furthermore the
influence of the atrium being absent during construction-
phase was something that had to be studied.
A description of your experience with ESA-Prima
Win when realising the project:
As said above, ESA Prima Win was a necessary design- and
study-tool for this project.
With it's user-friendly interface,
and shear endless possibilities, it proofed to be a worthy,
powerful and indispensable (for this
project) FEM-
application.
Birds view of structure.
Frontal view, atrium-roof
Side view,
with clear look on cantilever and trusses
Side view of Pallet,
with on the left side adjacent the
SCO-roof, taken from the start of the car-parking
entrance.
Rear-view, construction of 1st floor
Rendered picture from architectural design, side view,
complete building (left pallet,
middle SCO-Roof)
Rendered picture from architectural design, front view,
with view on atrium and cantilever.
51
SCIA User Contest Catalog
