One of the reasons for the appeal of this centre is the brightly lit atrium with its 48m diameter glass dome roof. A roof structure of maximum delicacy, and thus maximum transparency, was needed in order to ensure that daylight reaches far to the interior of this shopping centre. So seele developed an elegant, slender gridshell of welded steel sections. Designing the base of the dome as a tension ring that can accommodate all the movements of the dome in particular helped to minimise the dimensions of the steel sections for the roof structure.
With a rise of just 7m, the dome is extremely shallow. That in turn called for highly accurate calculations and workmanship in order to prevent a collapse. Therefore, the steel structure was delivered to site in the form of prefabricated subassemblies, as large as possible, which were then joined together in situ. The outer envelope is made up of 640 rhombus-shaped insulating glass units with a solar-control coating. Some 160 different formats were required. Lameynardie Architectes chose seele as a design partner because one previous seele project in particular convinced them that seele not only had the necessary technological expertise, but also the skills to turn the architects’ design concepts into reality.
Reference overview and Header image: © Atlantis le Centre, Valéry Joncheray
