Structural Design and Construction
The Gothic windows were to be freed from their supporting function, and the space below repaired. This required a new approach to the supporting structure. The solution was a planar roof surface simply supported on its perimeter as well as on short columns equally spaced along the midline. The small columns are also connected at the bottom, to a beam which transfers the load to the horizontal beams.
All the new members are made with glued-laminated timber, replacing the old solid timber members. The roof is made of five-ply cross-laminated timber panels. Three of the layers are oriented in the direction of the line of the short columns. This solution avoids using a beam on top of the columns to reduce the span of the roof. This also eliminates the need for a hip rafter on the corner intersection of the roof panels. Thus, more usable height is available in the lower space.
The roof was properly modeled by connecting members and surfaces. The arrangement of the strong layer of the CLT panels had to be checked with regard to the existing internal forces. With the help of one of RFEM's features for rigid surfaces, the load transfer from the CLT panels to the short columns was modeled. The plate joints were modeled with line hinges in RFEM. The internal forces at the line hinges were used for the design of the bolted connections at the plate edges.
| Structural Engineering | Technical Office and Timber Works Maderas Besteiro S.L. Lugo, Spain www.mbesteiro.com |
| Architecture | gAUArquitectura e UrbanismoSLp Lugo, Spain www.gau.com.es |
| Investor | Xunta de Galicia, Spain |
