Architect

By using Ductal®, architects were able to gather esthetism and technical feat

The center for architecture and urban planning information, documentation and exhibition center for the City of Paris, housed in a 19th century building called the Arsenal Pavilion, is home to a permanent exhibition on the history of Paris covering 1 000 m² of display area.

The architect-scenographers designed a thin, self-supporting mineral shell which covers the floor, the walls and the ceiling like a second skin, on which the exhibit is projected.

The shell was made with 18-mm thick Ductal® panels, which were covered with an electro-luminescent film and kept cutting and joints to the minimum; thereby guaranteeing excellent resistance to high-volume passage and to fire.

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.

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.

Architect Michel Ferranet created a uniform mineral universe, consistently gray throughout, in contrast with the wood furnishings, which enhances the clothing and accessories displayed in the Thierry Mugler boutiques in Paris and Frankfort. To achieve his design, Ferranet chose to work with Ductal® for the floor slabs, stairs and walls.

Ductal®’s inherent strength was used to make large but lightweight slabs (1.20 m / 20 mm thick for the floors, and 1.80 m / 15 mm thick for the walls), which were easy to handle and hang. The self-leveling capacity of Ductal®, its rapid setting and ease of use met the very tight (3-month) deadlines.

The pedestrian bridge in Seonyu, also called the Bridge of Peace, was inaugurated in April 2002. It crosses the Han River, linking Sunyudo Island (a natural park) to the heart of the South Korean capital.

This footbridge, designed by French architect Rudy Ricciotti, features an elegant, ultra-high performance concrete central arch 120 meters long and 4.3 meters wide.

It is extremely thin, like a sail billowing between the two banks of land. This challenging artistic feat and technical prowess was made possible with Ductal®, which provided extreme fluidity to the lines of the deck where thickness does not exceed 3 cm.

Ductal® enables such technical daring due to its superior compressive and flexural strengths and outstanding ductility.

Architect Edouard François has designed a vegetation-surrounded building in the ZAC in Asnières (Hauts-de-Seine), where the balconies are adorned with 4-foot high concrete flowerpots which serve as railings. The pots contain bamboo, giving the residents the impression of having their own private garden as they look out from their windows.

The architect specified Ductal® for the flower pots because of its ductility, mechanical strength and impermeability (providing durability in the moist atmosphere required by the plants).
The smooth, thin pots (only 2.1 cm thick compared to at least 7 cm for conventional concrete) only weigh 120 kilos empty, which lightens the live load on the balcony slabs.

To create the sunshades on the façade of the Doua university building at the Claude Bernard University in Lyon, architect Enri Chabal sought mineral material resembling the original concrete which date from the 1960’s.

Chabal had to solve the constraints of inserting the new material in the existing concrete and the weight, strength and durability for the sunshades had to be just 3 to 4 cm thick over spans of 1.70 m, offering high resistance and outstanding durability. Such demanding characteristics pointed to the choice of Ductal®-FO.

In all, one thousand precast sunshades were installed on the façade, deflecting and diffusing the outdoor light inside the building.

The Shawnessy LRT Station in, Calgary (Canada) provides an excellent demonstration of Ductal®’s ability to facilitate unique, innovative creations. Twenty-four white, ultra-thin curved shell-shaped canopies (just 20 mm thick) protect passengers from the elements, and enhanced lighting to the platforms below.

The station, was designed by architect Enzo Vicenzino (CPV Group Architects & Engineers Ltd.). Ductal® was used to build the canopies, struts, columns, beams and rain gutters.

The result – amazing artistic creativity and significantly stronger structural strength, validated by the Center for Innovative Technology at the University of Calgary.

The extremely durable canopies are also easy to clean and require very little maintenance.