Description

Both warehouses designed by Spanish architects MAP Arquitectos at the outskirts of Puigcerdá are part of a row of six industrial halls marking the transition from the town to the surrounding landscape. The halls are arranged parallel to rail tracks and serve as a transfer point and temporary storage of cargo. An apparently “floating” roof and a façade of steel and glass are designed to generate an image of weightlessness. The numerous large gates in the shiny metal building volumes create a link to the aeroplane hangars of an adjacent shut-down airfield.

The desired weightlessness of the storage halls has above all been achieved by means of a clear separation of structure and façade, which is followed through in the spatial separation and the choice of materials. The façade and the roof are – in contrast to the concrete structure – mainly composed of steel sections and girders as well as zinc sheeting and glass. The roof structure consists of in-situ concrete trussed beams, which taper from the columns to the ridge where they are hinged. They are trussed with steel sag rods over a span of 24 m and form a so-called French Truss. The round columns are positioned at 5.60 m intervals. The concrete girders cantilever 6 m, thus highlighting the structural independence of the façade, which is indicated to the outside mainly through a continuous strip window between the roof edge and the façade.

The building envelope is completely detached from the bearing structure. The façade is re­strained in the floor in order to resist wind loads without being attached to the structure. Steel posts stiffened by outriggers whose triangular shape follows the line of the end moment reinforce the façade. Daylight enters the large light-flooded 5,500 m² halls through strip windows and through the ridge that is glazed over its entire length.

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Originally published in: Jürgen Adam, Katharina Hausmann, Frank Jüttner, Industrial Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2004.