Luqa

Again a lean design has been adopted for this project with the addition of an additional 2 floors on the existing construction, together with a recessed floor for the penthouse level. Lean design calls for extending existing buildings, thus minimising waste of the materials & energy already invested in these structures & the amount of additional material used, whilst utilizing existing foundation works in place.

The additional floors for parking facilities with clear spans of 14.5m, is on the limit for the economic use of prestressed hollow core slabs. The recessed penthouse level envisaged for office use, is to be roofed over via a cantilevered solution in reinforced concrete. A vertical core in reinforced masonry is being inserted to achieve enhanced lateral stability for this vertically extended building.

HSBC Malta (Seismic Retrofitting)

ANOTHER FACE TO MALTA

A pre 1980’s block to the HSBC (Malta) in their Operations Centre Qormi, has currently being upgraded & retrofitted seismically. This block had deteriorated structurally and had been vacated for the past number of years. The decision had been undertaken over the past 4-year period to go for a lean structural solution, whilst retaining the existing volumetric space to be reverted to office use.

Lean structural designs tend to reduce embodied carbon for development projects. Nowadays it is noted that a solution that does not rely on the existing building, involves almost 50% more embodied carbon than one that can justify the increase in load on the existing structures & foundations. Hence retrofitting existing buildings minimises waste of the materials & energy already invested in these structures & the amount of additional material used.

The seismic retrofitting works includes for the insertion of a central staircase/lift core in reinforced concrete with its raft foundation acting as ballast weight to the overturning forces, together with the insertion of 8 vertical trusses in circular hollow steel sections, located on the façade in structural masonry.

Office Archive Block

This is an infill development of an original internal dancehall/cinema, apparently constructed in an old garden.

This 2-storey office archive building is a reinforced flat slab construction. The founding material for this concrete structure was partly on rock with the remaining backfilled material for a depth of 6m. This site probably served as an old quarry for the building of Floriana. Due to limited access to the internal site, 300mm diameter micro piles were adopted, socketed in rock at the bearing depth. An old arched reservoir was reutilized for the harvesting of rainwater for this large roof area.