Urban environment

The new bell tower in Laval is an identical copy of the one that has symbolised the city since the World War II. The main difference is that by using Ductal® the weight has been divided by 5. This is no small feat considering this 7-metre high ensemble must be hoisted up 22 metres off the ground to the top of the Palais de Justice in just 48 hours.

The Etablissements Deniau hired by builder Heulin to carry out this renovation worked from old photos to meet a twofold challenge: creating a specific form to use all the performances of Ductal®: an incomparable lightness with equivalent resistance and a grey raw concrete finish complying with the hue the architect wished to preserve so that the inhabitants would rediscover “their bell tower. “

Combining aesthetics and performance was the ambitious objective for the acoustic panels on the new underground rail station in the Principality of Monaco.

Station walls had to be faced with lightweight, thin acoustic panels with perforations to trap the noise reverberation. In addition to the demanding aesthetics and acoustic performances, the panels also had to stand up to outside aggression, in particular graffiti.

The use of Ductal® met every one of the constraints. Due to the extremely fine components in Ductal®, holes measuring only 1.5 cm² were created when the material was cast, facilitating the absorption of the noise and diffusing it toward the underlying rockwool.

In addition, the Ductal® panels, which measured an average of 2.30 m by 1.80 m, with 20-mm thickness in the solid areas and 15-mm thickness in the perforated areas, are nonflammable, easy to install and provide highly aesthetic surroundings for the station and its users.

Inspired by a steel sculpture designed in the 1930’s by brothers Jean and Noël Martel, the Martel Tree was commissioned by the city of Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine) and made by architect Marc Mimram. This 8.50-meter high sculpture was entirely made from Ductal® and represents a true artistic and technical feat.
Ductal®‘s intrinsic qualities were exploited to provide for the complex process of attaching the leaves - some of which were only 6 cm thick – to the tree trunk.

Ductal®’s outstanding stain resistance was combined with a specific treatment to ensure great durability and exceptional whiteness for this magnificent sculpture installed out of doors.

Some fifty acoustic panels have been installed along the roadway at the toll plaza exit in Châtellerault (Vienne) on the A10 motorway.

This particular job site was an ideal showcase for the qualities of new materials such as Ductal®-FO. There were two types of the relatively thin (only 20 mm thick) panels: single face or double face combined with a glass-cement composite.

Ductal® was selected for its high resistance to outside aggressions (car pollution automobile, road de-icing salts and other…) and for its environmental aesthetics, for the panels were colored green to blend in with the surrounding landscape.

Ten or so informatory signs displaying available car-parking space have been installed in one of the park-and-ride facilities of the Rennes metropolitain area network, STAR. These items of street furniture have been partly made in Ductal® to meet the project owner’s wish to have relatively fine structures suitable for an innovatory design in mineral material.

Ductal® was also chosen for its durability and low maintenance costs. Assembled by the Maurice Porte company, the signs were made by precast producer Jousselin.

This first in the field of urban signage could lead to production on a wider scale but also give rise to diversified offshoots such as, for instance, the use of Ductal® for advertising billboards.