The Vilnius Concert Hall is a competition entry proposal submitted by Yeah Architects in collaboration with a team of architects for Vilnius National Concert Hall Competition.
This competition offered a chance to deliver a design which is not only elegant and practical to build, but an eco-friendly solution which sets the benchmark for future sustainable developments.
As the appointed structural engineers, we had to ensure that the structural design of this building was specially engineered to compliment the complex and elegant nature of the building, whilst still maintaining our duty to help conserve the environment, following the main objectives:
- Preservation of energy and sustainable resources
- Improvement of health and well‐being
- Community engagement
- Urban integration
The roof of the building doesn’t only cover the wide inner spaces, it also brings a vibrant and functional feature to the building that enables people to walk over the building to access the key areas. For that reason, the loads on the roof are larger than they normally are for a typical building. Allowing for screed and steps of the outer surface, heavy machinery above the concert halls hung from the roof, congregation/crowd activity, heavy snow and wind pressure.
Despite the heavy loading, a steel trussed structure is generally restricted to the longer spans above the lobby areas, the halls and the common spaces. The trusses would then be paneled out with thin cross laminated timber (CLT) elements to create the aesthetic of deep timber beams, with glulam beams spanning between the steel trusses acting as the secondary framing structure. Light and eco-friendly materials such as timber, glulam and CLT are specified over the majority of the roof to minimise it’s carbon footprint.
The vertical structure comprises column and wall elements, which are both minimised and strategically located to provide a support to the roof which is not visually or spatially imposing. Strong full height steel trusses are adopted to support a 40m long cantilever supporting the restaurant and the common spaces above the ground floor level.
The stability of the building is provided by the internal walls and cores. Above ground level, all shear walls are specified as CLT panels and the walls enclosing the main and small halls are made from twin CLT panels, which encase the steel columns and provide horizontal stability to the building. This material has the benefit of exceptional acoustic and insulation performance.
”The vertical structure comprises column and wall elements, which are both minimised and strategically located to provide a support to the roof which is not visually or spatially imposing.
The upper level floor construction is CLT paneling supported by a grillage of steel beams. At ground and basement levels the floors comprise flat concrete slabs from recycled aggregate. A reinforced concrete basement using recycled aggregate is proposed as this is the most structural efficient, watertight solution which compliments the sustainability targets.
The result all round is a unique circulation structure designed to intentionally and dynamically change the perception and hearing experience of people while they walk through the building.
Design Credits:
Project Architect: YEAH Architects
Design Director: Manuel Caicoya
Lead Designer: Ping‐Hsiang Chen
Design Team: Manuel Caicoya, Ping‐Hsiang Chen, Pedro Manzano, Matteo Vergano.
Structure Engineer: Design4Structures
