Novelties
Integrated Management in the Azal Project
The ULMA Polymer Concrete Project team in collaboration with architects Felipe Pich-Aguilera and Teresa Batlle from Estudio Pich-Aguilera of Barcelona; have carried out a complete investigation project of the Ventilated Façade. It is a good example of the ULMA Integrated Management, where collaboration starts with the own birth of the idea, which is known as Simultaneous Engineering and ends with a rapid and efficient installation on site. The special details that highlight in the Azal Project are: • The design and form of the panel. • The specific anchorage. • The colors. • The set of lines with joints. The challenge consisted in getting a building assigned for harboring a nursery, to trace a hedge in the horizon, with the intention of creating a simile with nature. And so, after several tests and trials, the final design of the plate was carried out, developing an innovative Ventilated Façade System. A detailed analysis of the natural skins was carried out, looking for the ideal shape, size, texture and relief, for creating an encircling which adapts to the space, creating structural elements of organic shapes and continuous character. The result was a hexagonal shape plate, combined with an interior pentagon textures in bas-relief. The project team developed a special profile adequate for the system, to be able to fit the new hexagonal plate format. The dedication assigned to the preseries tested in the plant let them confront with a total success the challenge and although the work difficulty, the installation of the façade was executed in only 20 days during the month of August. We also added its original colors, developed aside of the existing palette in the catalog. The Torressana Nursery of Terrassa, located in the Barcelona province, has been the first real application of the AZAL project, with the new “hexapenta” plate. The ULMA Ventilated Façade System provides the nursery along with singularity, a good bioclimatic behavior. The Ventilated Façade, is an efficient system which enhances the behavior of the buildings preventing the thermal bridges and this translates into important energy savings which meets all the environmental sustainability requirements.
