WATER TOWER? FOR THE EXPO ZARAGOZA 2008

Project details

Technical Data

  • Height: 85.5 m (total) and 67.7 m (above base plate)
  • Floors: 19

Description

The “Water tower” was the successful tender in the competition of ideas organized by the City Council of Zaragoza to provide the Expo 2008 with an emblematic central building.

The adopted structural arrangement corresponds to the basic idea of achieving a perfect symbiosis between the resistant system and the architecture of the building. The solution is based on the use of megastructures: unitary structural systems which for being adjusted to the building´s shape, take full advantage of its outer dimensions.

The main part of the structural system is the outer skin of the building: a spatial mega truss of I-beams set to work as a membrane along the perimeter of the building, bearing on a large tray-like arrangement which constitutes the base plate of the tower. This plate consists of a slab of varying thickness supported by a triangular grid of downstand beams.