Machico Cultural Center
2003
PECS was responsible for the structural and foundation projects and for some specialties of the building destined for a cultural center located in Machico.
In addition to the development of the projects, he was also responsible for their coordination and for monitoring the respective administrative licenses.
It is a building composed of a buried floor and 4 in elevation. It includes a parking on the underground floor, commercial areas, exhibition areas, auditorium, garden, outdoor amphitheater, multipurpose stage / room and respective support areas, on the raised floors. The underground parking floor is divided by an expansion joint, between an area only on the underground floor and the area with construction above ground.
Description
One of the building's particularities is the heterogeneity of structural solutions. Not only the most current reinforced concrete solutions were used, but also more complex solutions. Therefore, structural solutions of mixed slab with collaborative plate supported on metallic structure and structural solutions of slab consisting of mixed structure with laminated metal profiles HEB600 and solid slab of thickness 0.30 were used. The central metal staircase, leading to the exhibition hall, is a good example of the partnership between Architecture and Structure. The structure of the building consists of solid or lightened, reinforced or fungiform reinforced concrete slabs, with a thickness varying between 0.20 and 0.50 m depending on the areas of the building. These slabs work directly supported on pillars, beams and walls, which transmit the loads to the foundations.
Given the characteristics of the terrain, weak resistance and the existence of a water table, the foundations were made using general sunshade, in order to guarantee a tension distributed in the low-value terrain, and to be able to control the differential deformations between the various elements. . The sunbathing profile included a solid reinforced concrete slab, gravel layer with the function of draining the water due to infiltrations or that could possibly pass through the bottom slab, and rigging, executed with a 0.5% slope, which accompanies the pending of the general sunscreen.
The proposed solution for carrying out the excavation was the execution of embankments in almost the entire perimeter of the building. In the West area, given the large gap and the depth of the excavation to be carried out, a curtain of piles anchored in the ground was designed. This pile curtain functioned only as a temporary containment, and the building was founded on the general sunshade to be executed later. In this way, the anchorages were deactivated after the concrete of the retaining walls had sufficient strength for the effect, and only after the execution of the covering slab in this area.
