A concrete shell just 6 cm thick, resolved by its geometry rather than by the strength of the material.
The Torres Gundlach is an office building made up of two towers, located on the corner of Reyes Ortiz and Federico Zuazo streets, in the center of La Paz. At 104 meters tall, the West Tower is one of the tallest buildings in Bolivia, and together the complex totals 28,700 m² built.
To date, the towers have already withstood two major earthquakes for the city of La Paz without a single crack.
One of its main features is the concrete shell at the entrance: similar in span to the shells of the San Miguel Arcángel Church, but much lower in height, which makes it structurally more challenging. The principle of a shell is that it is a continuous curved structure, of very small thickness, that holds itself up by its geometry rather than by the strength of the material.
The geometry of the shell was generated with a sequence of funicular catenary polygons. Thanks to this it could be built just 6 cm thick, using concrete of barely 15 MPa characteristic strength. The glass skin of the shell was also resolved as a structure that supports itself through the strength of the glass itself, used as a structural element. Our work consisted of the structural calculation and design and the supervision of the structural works.
We design, calculate and verify structures in Bolivia and abroad, in person or remotely.
Let's talk about your project