The Annen Head Office Project is on Tracés !

Tracés new issue is dedicated to wooden constructions. Looking at the latest innovations in timber construction, the editor-in-chief Marc Frochaux shares an article to the extra-ordinary project of the Halle Annen in Manternach.

The Annen Head Office Project consists in a series of 23 vaults with spans ranging from 22.5 m to 53.7 m (due to the constraints of the project and the terrain) and constant high and width of 9 and 6 m respectively. The project will accommodate a 5800m² facility including a timber prefabrication factory space and offices.

Each arch is a double-curved shell structure with a design inspired by Eladio Dieste’s Gaussian mansonry vaults. The shell is made of two interconnected layers of timber plates assembled with through-tenon joints. The vaults present overlapping s-shaped cross-sections. The plates are interconnected using 1DOF integral joints between all the plates (vertical and horizontal) to benefit at its most of the locator and connector properties.