Short Description / Structural consulting for a glazing roof
Year / 2016
Location / Venice, Italy
Architect / One Works
Tags / ,

The Venice airport expansion project designed by OneWorks architects includes a long covered gallery with a metal structure topped by insulated glasses. The special feature of this project is the use of cold-bent glass.

Collaborating with the supplier of the glass helped develop the idea of bending the panels (approximately 2x2m) directly on site during the installation. In fact, the cold bending of glass is a very risky procedure but, if well designed and if necessary experimental tests are made, the system appears safe. In addition to numerical investigations with complex finite element models, we also proceeded with a series of experimental tests on a full scale sample instrumented with displacement transducers and strain gauges in order to verify the state of tension as a result of the applied loads and to compare it with the numerical ones.