REFURBISHMENT OF BUILDING ORTEGA Y GASSET, 6 IN MADRID - DIOR STORE

The building, object of this refurbishment and retrofitting project, occupies the three lower levels, basement floor, ground floor and first floor above ground level, of 300 m2 each, of a central building at 6th Ortega y Gasset Street in Madrid.

Its adaptation to the new architectural requirements of Dior retail, required a series of structural interventions of different magnitude:

• elimination of existing masonry wall;
• execution and closing of slabs openings due to the modification of the vertical communication cores;
• reinforcement of one way slab to be able to face the vertical loads increase, and so on.

Given the strict architectural constraints related to the free height of the store, the elimination of existing sections of the wall has been made by the provision of strict depth steel lintels, located both sides of the existing wall , connected to it and fitted in the dropped ceiling height. Those lintels are supported by steel columns within the existing wall thickness. The appearance of these new punctual loads in the masonry wall, entails the need to reinforce the foundation by the execution of new micropile foundation.

The final demolition of the affected masonry wall, once the new reinforcement structure has been executed, is carried out through active load transfers, using hydraulic jacks, in order to minimize displacements due to load transfer operation that would have affected to the inhabited flats located above the store.

The vertical load increase in the floor slabs has required the reinforcement of existing steel floor beams, by means of steel plates and connection to new compression layer fitted in the architectural finish.