Polaris Paddepoel

SAFETY, GRONINGEN, RESIDENCES, HIGH-RISE, EARTHQUAKES

Location

Groningen

Size

8.500 m2

Client

Lefier - Groningen

Year

2019

In the Paddepoel district a residential tower called 'Polaris' is being realised. This tower is going to be around 70 metres high. Regarding the earthquakes (PGA = 0,08), research has been done into the consequences for the main load bearing structures of this high-rise building. The forces are of such size that a sollution with base isolation is the most economical. This sollution has been completely integrated into the design and implementation of this complex. We chose to implement base isolation between the foundation beams and ground floor. The entire main load-bearing construction, including reinforcement and the structural design has been analysed and calculated with the use of an NLTH analysis in Abaqus. 
 

We made a short video of an earthquake simulation of this building.

Similar projects

Pino Blanc

Along the Hereweg, near the A7 motorway a 12-storey residential tower, with a 2-storey parking garage has been realised. With regard to the earthquakes, research has been done on its effects on the main load-bearing structures of the residential tower and the parking garage. The earthquake load confrom the NPR9998; dec 2015, is of such size, that they couldn't be readily integrated in the current design. By opting for a solution with base isolation, a sollution was found in which forces could be reduced in the current design. This sollution has been integrated into the design and implemented as such. In this case we chose to integrate the base isolation above the parking garage and under the residential storeys. 
 
SAFETY, GRONINGEN, HIGH-RISE, EARTHQUAKES, RESIDENCES

B-tower

The B-Tower, in the centre of Rotterdam, is een mixed-use toren. The ground floor and 1st floor consist of 4.000 m2 retail area for a store of "The Sting". The 3rd and 4th floor have been designated for parking for the 24 apartments and 54 Urban Studios, which can be found on the 5th through 19th floor. The apartments can be rented for short stay, see www.urbanresidences.com.

The B-Tower has been build immediately adjacent to the monumental building of the so called "Bijenkorf" (Beehive), close to the Beurstraverse, Coolsingel and Lijnbaan shopping streets. The structure of the tower consists of concrete poured in situ with facades made of floor-to-ceiling glass facade elements.
 
NEW, ROTTERDAM, MIXED-USE, HIGH-RISE

Merckt

Merckt is a project in the centre of Groningen city situated on the corner of Grote Markt. The building houses apartments and small restaurants. Because of its specific shape, the earthquake resistant engineering for the building was particularly complex. Through an NLTH-analyse, the behaviour of the structure during an earthquake was investigated, see our paper. Especially the lower levels are sensitive to earthquake loads. To make the building earthquake resistant in its present form, the apartments have been structurally 'separated' from the lower levels. This significantly reduces the forces from the apartments in case of an earthquake and enables the structure to absorb them within the present design.

We have made a short illustration with a comparison of an earthquake analysis of Merckt with and without base isolation.
SAFETY, GRONINGEN, RESIDENCES, SHOPS, EARTHQUAKES