SHOWCASES
BELVÉDÈRE RESIDENTIAL TOWER
HILVERSUM, NETHERLANDS
STRUCTURAL DESIGN: Adviesbureau van de Laar
ARCHITECT: René van Zuuk Architekten
CONTRACTOR: Lokhorst Bouw & Ontwikkeling
CUSTOMER: Novaform Vastgoedontwikkelaars
YEAR: 2018
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
PROJECT
René van Zuuk Architects had to take into account a number of conditions when designing the residential tower. For example, the plot of the residential tower had a triangular shape and a large part of the plot could not be built due to the required minimum distance from the boundary and the existing Bonna pipe. As a result, the available floor space for the building was relatively small and the construction of a tower was obvious. The client also wanted a tower with houses of varying sizes. In order to meet this wish, a building has been created that protrudes further upwards, thus increasing the available floor space per floor.
The 52 apartments in the residential tower are placed across the corner, so that each apartment has two orientations. This gives a high degree of flexibility in the layout of the floor plan and ensures that every resident has a balcony that can be reached by the sun.
EVER WIDER
After completion, the residential tower of René van Zuuk Architecten will accommodate a number of commercial spaces on the ground floor. The apartments are located in the ten floors above. The building has a narrow base and continues to widen upwards. The outer shell of the building consists largely of masonry that is suspended from the concrete floors at each location floor with steel angle lines. A cellar is created under the total footprint of the building.
Due to the good foundation, the tower can be founded on steel. The main supporting structure of the tower consists of six concrete walls in both the x and y directions of the building. The concrete floors are laid on these walls. The floors are also used to balance the opposite cantilevered walls. For this purpose, tension belts are placed in the floors in the form of reinforcement. In order to create as many floor plans as possible, recesses have been made in the load-bearing concrete walls at various locations.
3D CALCULATION
To calculate the stability of the four-sided cantilevered tower, the use of a finite element program was necessary. The AxisVM program was used for the analysis. After an initial set-up of the walls in Revit, they were loaded into AxisVM using the DXF exchange format (3D). Despite the fact that the building appears symmetrical at first glance, this is not the case. To keep the calculation of the superstructure transparent, the model has therefore been cut into two separate models, namely the walls in the x direction and the walls in the y direction. In both models, the floor diaphragm are modeled to connect the different walls together. In this way, the stiffnesses and deformations could be determined. The loads are distributed over the various walls according to the ratio of wall stiffnesses.
By also introducing the one-meter-thick foundation plate and linking it to the wall models, the influence of the rigidity of the foundation has been included in the deformations of the superstructure. Different variants have been investigated to determine what the dimensions of the foundation plate should be. To mobilize sufficient stability, the basement floor protrudes 1.5 meters outside the basement walls on all sides. In addition to weight and stability analysis, the AxisVM models have also been used to reinforce the walls and the thick foundation plate.
DETAILED ANALYSIS
For the walls, the results of the occurring normal forces per running meter were performed. These were subsequently introduced in the concrete columns program of Technosoft to determine the minimum required reinforcement per wall strip and to take the fire-resistance requirement of 120 minutes directly into account.
In the model of the foundation, a reinforcement calculation was performed with AxisVM, in which the required lower and upper reinforcement was determined. This colorful output was subsequently translated into reinforcement drawings by Van de Laar.
After the concrete main structure of the building was calculated, several secondary steel parts were calculated in the Technosoft beams and frames programs.
BIM
The entire construction of the residential tower has been further drawn in 3D using Revit to the working drawing level. In the meantime, the work has been successfully put out to tender and the construction model is used as the basis for the further elaboration in BIM by the implementing parties. The installations will also be modeled in 3D, so that any clashes with steel beams, for example, can be detected early.
The chosen implementation method is tunnel casting. In order to be able to make the various cantilevers, steel beams are needed in the execution phase, which are temporarily attached to the already poured concrete walls. Anchors are also included in the concrete walls, from which the prefab balcony structures can later be hung.
