Public school in Gallipoli

Building use

Other

Country/Region

Italy

Overview

The building will be built on the site of a previously existing derelict structure. The new construction will host the Amerigo Vespucci nautical school in the historic part of the city of Gallipoli. The building will have 15 classrooms and it will be able to accommodate up to 375 students, ten labs, a gym and a library, offices and external areas for an additional 2200 square meters. The long span of the gym will require the use of composite steel-concrete beams due to the presence of an additional story above it.

Basic information (construction date, number of stories, gross floor area, adopted design code, engineer(s), Contractor(s), etc.)

Construction date: 2021
Number of stories: 3
Gross floor area: 4,350m2
Adopted design code: NTC/2018
Engineer(s): ATI Project
Contractor(s): still to be determined

Issue and/or innovation

The long span beams of the gym (approx. 20 meters) will be built using a steel-concrete composite truss beam technology with built-in formwork system. The beams have to carry the weight of an additional level above the gym roof and of the accessible terrace on a portion of it.

Reason for composite solution

The composite solution is used to cover the long span of the gym that has to support a story above with a relevant design load. The need to keep the same roof height of the rest of the structure and a free height inside the gym of 6,5m.

Specific solution/technical details

For seismic reasons, the area of the gym is structurally disconnected from the rest of the building. The gym sits on a foundation formed by 15 meter deep concrete piles, connected by foundation beams. The entire structure is made of reinforced concrete elements except for the gym whose beams are composite truss beams with a built-in formwork. Beams are 150×50 cm in section. The bottom part of the beam is formed by a 15 mm thick S355 plate. The truss is formed by 4 diam 36mm rods in the lower part and 6 diam 42mm in the upper portion. The collaborative concrete element is poured in two separate pours, the upper one integrating a lightweight predalles system with 4cm of prefab concrete slab, 12cm of lightweight system and a 4cm topping of concrete with a 150mm diam 6mm wire mesh.

Impact or effectiveness

With the roof height determined due to the alignment with the other part of the structure, the use of a composite construction system reduces the height of the beam of about 20% if compared to a similar concrete beam. A conventional beam would have reduced excessively the free height of the gym underneath.