Owner

Building owners can save money by using Ductal®, with mechanical qualities that ensure durability and reduce maintenance costs.

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 façades at the headquarters building for the Havas group in Suresnes (Hauts-de-Seine) are faced with concrete gridwork now 30 years old and with some parts that have greatly deteriorated.
By choosing Ductal®-FO, to produce the new gridwork panels the demanding feasibility, ease of use and aesthetic constraints were all met.

The Ductal®-FO panels blended perfectly with the older structures and kept worksite operations to a minimum while providing high strength for the railing structures.

Three new clinker silos were built to upgrade the Joppa cement manufacturing facility in Illinois, USA. Two of the silos had conventional steel roofing, whereas the third was completed with Ductal®. For this innovative roof, 24 precast panels, measuring 7.2 m long, 2.4 m wide and only 1.5 cm thick were assembled.

Highly innovative design was applied in the silo roof, and the erection of the Ductal® roof took (11 days) compared to the steel roof of 35 days+.In addition, Ductal® provided excellent durability and impermeability, resistance to corrosion, abrasion and impact, reduced maintenance and longer life.

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 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 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 1000 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.

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.

The project at Reunion Island involved stabilizing a retaining wall on the water’s edge, the entire length of the coastal road. The original support structure which reinforced the roadway, was built of precast building slabs and badly damaged.

To strengthen the wall, underground anchoring systems were connected to distribution plates made of Ductal®, fastened on the embankment facing the ocean. In all, 6 300 Ductal® with organic fiber plates and 200 Ductal® with steel fiber plates were installed. The Ductal® solution met all cost and maintenance requirements and other project demands such as production under three months, lightness and ease of installation.).
Today, the Ductal® anchor plates secure a strong, durable sea wall that is resistant to marine corrosion and requires very little or no upkeep.