Swiss wood is economical
18.05.2023
On May 05, Lignum Fribourg presented Armasuisse with the Swiss Wood label. For the refurbishment of the multi-purpose hall HUM in Payerne, Swiss wood turned out to be the most economical solution. Timbatec accompanied the renovation project as timber construction engineer and submitted the certification application as Swiss Timber specialist partner.
For the renovation of the multi-purpose hall HUM in Payerne, the company Gutknecht Holzbau relied on Swiss wood. The timber constructors used a total of 470m³ of studs and battens, external formwork, acoustic and lignature elements, and wood fiber insulation from Switzerland.
Public procurement law (BöB)
The client Armasuisse was not allowed to demand Swiss wood in the tender. This would violate the guidelines of public procurement law. According to the principle of non-discrimination, no requirement may be made with regard to the origin of the material. It is not permissible to demand Swiss wood or wood from a certain area around the construction. However, there are ways in which wood from the surrounding area can be used despite public tendering: The provision of the wood by the building owner himself, the so-called in-house procurement, is one of them. In the case of the renovation of the multi-purpose hall HUM, in-house procurement was not necessary. The Swiss wood was simply the most economical solution.
In the 1970s, the armed forces had a great need for new multipurpose buildings and had two types of halls developed for this purpose. Today, the real estate portfolio of armasuisse Immobilien includes 30 multi-purpose halls of type 71 and seven halls of type 76. These multi-purpose halls were built between 1969 and 1992 and in some cases show signs of age which now have to be renovated. A basic report shows that various halls no longer meet today's earthquake safety requirements. In the course of the renovation work, the halls will be structurally strengthened.
Multipurpose halls type 71
The halls were built at various locations in Switzerland according to the same basic system with some variation in the design. In each case, the steel frame structure is continuous from the outside to the inside and is lined with sand-lime brick wall panels clad with Eternit. The steel beams visible from the outside give the building its clear grid. The dressing room wing is mostly brick.
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Coherent redevelopment
The armory in Payerne has several multi-purpose halls. After decades of operation, the first hall had various defects and was in need of technical and structural renovation. A complete renovation was planned by Haller Gut Architekten AG in 2016. Timbatec was allowed to accompany this renovation as a timber engineer and was able to apply its experience to the renovation of the second multi-purpose hall on the same armory site. We planned the refurbishment of the second hall in Payerne together with LZA Architekten.
Facade and bracing
The infill panels between the steel frames were removed and replaced by prefabricated wooden elements. They stiffen the hall so that it meets the structural requirements in force today. On the inside, the steel beams remain visible, which shapes the hall space through the grid of filigree steel frames. In this way, all elements were planned around the existing steel frame. The exterior facade is characterized by the vertically mounted wooden formwork.
Interiors
A lot of daylight enters the hall space through the two large glass surfaces on the long sides. The wall panels as well as the roof were made of prefabricated elements with 3-layer panels of spruce wood, which are perforated to improve the acoustics. The atmosphere of the multipurpose hall is characterized by the warm color of the wood. The new windows created interesting diagonal views and spatial references.
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