Biography
Biography: Marco Canal
Abstract
This newly completed project consisted in the renewal of the Portomaso Tower, and historical cafeteria in St. Julian district, Malta. The new 11-storey building was designed by Malta-based architectural studio DeMicoli and Associates, while PICHLER, and has been responsible for the structural design, construction and installation of the steel structures and glass facades. The steel structure rises on an existing five - underground floors concrete building. In order to resist the new loads transferred by the new building, welded steel columns on new concrete foundations have been realized. The columns were then linked to the existing floor slabs. The tower stands on 14 columns linked through a bolted connection to the underlying columns. The structure consists in 12 floors, realized with steel beams and completed with steel-concrete composite floor slabs. Horizontal stability and stiffening is guaranteed by a stairwell and by a front wall, both realized with reinforced concrete structures. Another contribution to horizontal stability is given by a strutting system realized with adjustable compression struts, installed at every floor. External balconies were provided at every floor, and realized with ad custom-designed welded beams, completed with steel-concrete composite floor slabs. The fire protection R60 of the steel structure was obtained with an off-site intumescent coating. To realize the supporting structures of the tower, a total of 1200 ton steel was used, 950 of which as standard structural profiles and 250 ton as welded profiles. The construction of the tower was carried out by a team of six workers for seven months duration.