z3rch

Kategorie: ETFE Cushion

  • Marassi Galleria Mall, Kingdom of Bahrain (2021)

    Marassi Galleria Mall, Kingdom of Bahrain (2021)

    Project Data

    Architect: PACE Arquitectura y Planificación
    Client : Gulf Shade
    Structure: Estructura neumática de cojines de ETFE sobre arcos de Acero
    Material: ETFE natural + impreso, bordes de Alumnio + Acero
    Covered Area: 22.000 m2
    Photos: Gulf Shade

    Z3RCH:
    -Design and Engineering of ETFE cushion system.
    -Statics and Form Finding for ETFE cushions.
    -Definition o work pressure.
    -Proof Detailing connections for ETFE and Steel structure
    -Cutting Patterns of ETFE foil.
    -Supervision and consulting of Steel work design.

    Our second project in Middle East has been finished!
    The Marassi Galleria Mall located in the kingdom of Bahrain, with aprox. 200.000 sqm of useful areas!

    The Marassi Galleria Mall will host five interconnected lifestyle urban districts, each with a theme tailored to a specific customer taste: the high-street, the Family Plaza, a Waterfront Dining Promenade, an animated rooftop and The Luxury Courtyard. All this places will be interconnected under an ETFE Roof system of 22.000 sqm, allowing sunshine and a sky view while going through the mall.

    The structure consists of parallel steel arches that have a maximum span of 35 meters. The ETFE cushions run parallel to the arches to provide cover for the passage.

  • Lima University, Peru (2020)

    Lima University, Peru (2020)

    Project Data

    Design: Cidelsa
    Client: Cidelsa
    Structure: Free form neumatic structure, ETFE foil cushions + steel borders
    Material: ETFE natural + printed, Aluminum borders + Steel Structure
    Covered Area: 380 sqm
    Photos: Cidelsa

    Z3RCH:
    –Design and Engineering of ETFE cushion system.
    -Statics and Form Finding for ETFE cushions.
    -Definition o work pressure.
    -Detailing connections.
    -Cutting Patterns of ETFE foil.

    At the end of 2019, the firm CIDELSA contact us to help them develop what would be the first ETFE Cushion Roof in Perú. The project was to cover the inner court of the new
    building of the University of Lima, a building with LEED certification.

    The project consist of 22 ETFE cushion with a triangular form. These cushion are fixed on the border to a steel structure. The ETFE cushion boders spans up to ten meters on the longest side. The work of z3rch was mostly to advice the client on the design process of ETFE cushions, since they can not build in every form and dimension. After this design process was achieved we were able to finalize the calculation and produce the pattern to be able to build the ETFE panels.

    After the realization of the project, Perú has it first ETFE cushion roof oh his Architectural history.

  • Red Sea Mall ETFE skylight (2018)

    Red Sea Mall ETFE skylight (2018)

    Project Data

    Architect: Midrar Consulting
    Z3RCH: Engineering ETFE cushion and cable net + cutting patterns
    Client : Gulf Shade
    Structure: Cable net reinforced big ETFE cushion
    Material: ETFE natural / printed + Steel Cables
    Covered area: 760 sqm
    Fotos: Gulf Shade

    The Red Sea Mall will host the first cinema to open in Jeddah. The cinema infraestructure occupies an 8,000 sqm space and will have 1,472 seats in 12 halls, including standard and VIP halls, an IMAX screen, a 4DX auditorium with motion-controlled seats, and halls for children.

    For this new experience for the people of Jeddah we were asked to design the ETFE cushion that covers the opening of the ceiling at the entrance of the cinema. The structure consist of 9 ETFE cushion with different dimensions reinforced by a steel cable net. Every cushion is independent from the other and is made of a 3 layer system to achieve a better thermical insulation.
    The biggest ETFE cushion is 21 x 9 m and describe an oval form.

    The cushions cover approximately 80% of the hall entrance area with a minimum amount of steel structure. This means that we have approximately 80% of natural light that illuminates the main hall of the first cinema in the city of Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

  • The Harbor, Merida, Mexico (2018)

    The Harbor, Merida, Mexico (2018)

    Project data

    Design: Lonas Lorenzo
    ETFE planning: z3rch
    Cutting pattern ETFE: form-TL
    Assembly: Lonas Lorenzo
    ETFE roof system: 3dtex
    Structure: ETFE cushion
    Material: ETFE IR-Cut + steel + aluminium
    Covered Area: aprox. 1.850 sqm
    photos: 3dtex

    The project consist in 2 halls and the main walkway of the shopping mall, where the main idea was to have the feeling of being outside but with a better thermal sensation, the project consist in a variable radial structure where you have a repetitive arch that contains a cushion of ETFE and one part of TX30 that increase the size along the walkway to create a soft and enjoyable natural lighting.

    The client requested a roof that fulfill the requirements of the thermal study they have from the first analysis made for a glass roof, then the first thing to do was to find the combination of ETFE properties that fills the G values asked by the client and to make bigger spaces than the original glass proposal.

    The unique about the project was the combination of materials, and how to make the installation of these two materials, we create a drain in between the cushions and the steel structure to have a clean set of materials.

     

  • Paseo Acoxpa – Mexico City (2018)

    Paseo Acoxpa – Mexico City (2018)

    Project data

    Arquitect: Grupo Arquitech
    Cutting patterns ETFE: z3rch
    Structure: ETFE Kissen überdachung
    Material: ETFE IR-Cut 250µm + Natural printed 200 µm
    Covered Area: aprox. 1.000 sqm
    photos: 3dtex


    Paseo Acoxpa is an outdoor shopping center of 56,000 square metres opened in 2010 in colonia Ex-Hacienda Coapa, Mexico City.

    The project consist of a roof of 67 m long and 16 m wide in the form of a half cylinder. The steel structure describing the half cylinder was done with arches that cross their self to form equal diamond areas between the arches.

    Every diamond was covered with an ETFE cushion, making a total of 235 cushion to be confection and installed. 3 types of cushion where needed to complete the 1.685 sqm of roof surface area.

  • Oxygen – San José, Costa Rica (2018)

    Oxygen – San José, Costa Rica (2018)

    Project data

    Architect: Jerde
    Engineering ETFE + cable structure, cutting patterns: z3rch
    Main contractor ETFE-Cushion: 3dtex
    Assembly: Lonas Lorenzo
    Manufacturing ETFE: Novum
    Manufacturing Stainless Steel Cables: Jakob
    Structure: Cable net supported ETFE cushion
    Material: ETFE natural + IR-Cut, Stainless steel cables
    Covered Area: 1.600 sqm
    photos: 3dtex, Lonas Lorenzo

    etfe cushion

    San Francisco de Heredia will soon be home to Oxígeno, a unique recreational and commercial space that combines nature and human relaxation in a development that “will be unique in the world.” For this amazing project it was asked to us to developed a cover for the main food court of the almost 125.000 sqm recreation and shopping area.
    The job was to developed an ETFE roof for 1.600 sqm, the idea, to do one big ETFE cushion!

    The roof has a diameter of 45m and the ETFE material is supported by a cable net attached to a steel structure provided by the client. Very important in this project is the safety system against water ponding, a system developed by the firm 3dtex, which does not use the plastic tube inside the cushion, achieving first a better safety of the system and second a much clear and elegant architectural design of the structure.

    In this way the country of Costa Rica and the city of Heredia not only became it first ETFE cushion roof but also the biggest in the world.

    Here we leave you a video of the assembly!video: Julián García | editing: Andres Aguirre

  • La victoria shopping mall – Santiago de Queretaro, Mexico (2017)

    La victoria shopping mall – Santiago de Queretaro, Mexico (2017)

    Project data

    Design: Lonas Lorenzo
    Engineering Steel + ETFE: z3rch
    Contractor: Lonas Lorenzo + 3dtex
    Structure: Free form pneumatic structure
    Material: ETFE foil + steel + steel cables + aluminium
    Covered Area: aprox. 1.000 sqm
    photos: 3dtex, Lonas Lorenzo



    The ETFE roof of the Shopping Mall “La Victoria” in Queretaro, Mexico, is our second project together with Lonas Lorenzo.

    For this project we have designed an oval steel ring which is covered with a PCV/PES layer to hide the steel structure. The big oval ring described by steel structure was designed to be covered with an ETFE material. In this way we have a designed a big ETFE Cushion of 30 m length, 24 m wide and 7.5 m high, being this by the moment, the biggest ETFE cushion in America.

    The big volume inside the steel ring it is put under pressure to give form to the outer ETFE surfaces, and to have the structure under working tension. The steel ring structure, covering aprox. 1.000 sqm wil be held in 4 points, making the idea of levitating of the project possible.

  • Nativa shopping mall – Monterrey, Mexico (2014)

    Nativa shopping mall – Monterrey, Mexico (2014)

    Project data

    Design: 3dtex + Lonas Lorenzo
    Engineering ETFE + Detailing: z3rch
    Patterning ETFE: form-TL
    Assembly: Lonas Lorenzo
    Structure: Free form pneumatic structure
    Material: ETFE foil natural + white, Aluminium profiles
    Covered Area: 1.600 sqm
    photos: 3dtex


    Cubierta voronoi is the first ETFE roof in the history of Mexico. The project was concibed to be the meeting point of the new shopping mall in the neighborhood of San Pedro Garza Garcia, Monterrey.
    The structure consist of a tree-like steel masts wich support a “honeycomb” covering steel structure. The panels of the honey were covered by ETFE cushions, this are transparent on the bottom and white on the top. The first project, so its name, was a Voronoy structure, i.e., the surface descripted by the roof was divided into panels by the algorithm developed by Mr. Voronoy.
    This gave a very nice and aesthetic structure, but far away to be built with the budget and time propose by the client. Because of this we rethink and redesing the project, to be able to achieve the schedule and budget proposed the client. In this way was designed a free form steel roof wich was divided into a honeycomb structure. The big achievment of this design was to build the freeform roof only with 5 diferent cushions. In this way all the production process was acelerated and cost for the construction and planning were reduced. Also the assembly process was standarized, and the whole 100 cushion were mounted in only 12 days.

  • Multihalle Mannheim, Germany 2019

    Multihalle Mannheim, Germany 2019

    Project data

    Arquitect: HMGB Architekten
    Competition: Democratic Umbrella
    Z3RCH:  Counsulting for the Structural Concept
    Structure: Cable net supported ETFE cushion
    Covered Area: aprox. 1.250 + 700 sqm
    photos: HMGB Architekten

    Design for the international competition for the Multihalle Mannheim from HMGB Architekten.
    Dos cojínes de ETFE son concebidos para ser construidos dentro del hall. Generando un contraste entre el antiguo hall y las ideas de Frei Otto y el estado del arte actual de las estructuras tensadas.

  • Bus terminal Aarau, Switzerland (2013)

    Bus terminal Aarau, Switzerland (2013)

    Project data

    Architect: VJA Architekten
    Engineering: form-tl
    Structure: ETFE pneumatic structure
    Material: ETFE foil, steel + steel cables
    Covered Area: 1.000 sqm
    photos: Eduard Hueber, Niklaus Spoerri, z3rch


  • Pyraeus shopping mall – Athen, Greece (2009)

    Pyraeus shopping mall – Athen, Greece (2009)

    Project data

    Architect: Conran & Partners, London + Diarchon, Athen
    Engineering: form-TL
    Structure: Retractable roof + ETFE cushions
    Material: Silicon fiber glas membrane, ETFE, steel + steel cables
    Covered Area: 3.400 sqm
    photos: form-TL