Abstract of: All-glass entrance pavillion for an office building in Madrid

Abstract

The iconic Torre Europa building in Madrid is currently under refurbishment. The envisaged works include the construction of a new entrance hall composed of two structural glass façades and a steel canopy above them. This paper focuses on the design and construction of the two structural glass façades, which are connected together at an angle of 100∘. These are made up of a number of laminated glass panels standing on the ground floor slab and stabilised by vertical glass fins. The connection between the cladding panels and the fins is resolved with embedded metal connectors. The top end of the fins is connected to an horizontal glass beam that extends along the two façades, thus forming an Lshape with both ends fixed to the primary structure of the building. This beam is a critical structural element that carries 50% of the wind load applied to the façades and may be also exposed to some vertical load such as snow.

Keywords

• Structural glass
• Embedded metal connectors
• Spring supports
• Structural silicone