Project: New aquarium in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
In 2016, Encofrados Alsina began collaborating in the construction of the new Poema del Mar Aquarium, located in the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Poema del Mar Aquarium (which translates to Sea Poem) is the largest complex of this type in Europe and it is scheduled to be finished this year (2017). The project entails the construction of a horizontal building with an area of 8,500 square meters.
The aquarium will be made up of three areas: surface marine ecosystems, deep marine ecosystems and freshwater species. Once the aquarium opens, more than 8 million liters of water will be used to hold about 350 marine species that will live at one of the most spectacular aquariums of the world.
Out of the different parts of the project, it is worthhighlighting the outstanding 7.600 m2 façade, which is 20 meters high. This wall is being built with white concrete and designed to contain some small hollow surfaces in the white concrete wall with the shape of a shark.
These hollow surfaces called “pixels” make this unique infrastructure even more spectacular, since they will have a total of 3,000 light fixtures forming the shape of a great shark, and at night, thanks to RGB LED technology, the complex lights will change their tonality and intensity.
Alsina: versatile and cost-effective formwork
To carry out the project, Alsina has supplied many of its formwork and shoring system solutions, as well as engineering, calculation and on-site consulting services.
The formwork systems used in the implementation of this project are: Alisply walls, Alisply Circular, Multiform Vertical, Vistaform Circular, C-160 Climbing System, Mecanoflex, Alumecano, Cl40 Shoring System, Ar80 Shoring System, scaffolding and Access Stairways.
A facade view with hollow surfaces in two volumes
For the facade building, the customer requested the fulfillment of three conditions: white concrete facades, exact modules of the wall panel joints, arrangement of the bars to suit the design, leaving on the wall some hollow surfaces to host the so-called pixels- a lighting system that decorates the facade with the shape of an aquatic animal.
With the aim to meet these requirements, Alsina’s technical department presented diverse solutions to the customer. The main problem was that any intervention that complied with all of them was expensive, did not guarantee the quality of concrete required or simply implied a much longer implementation time.
Finally, a special proposal was made, which consists in carrying out the building of the walls using Alsina’sC-160 Climbing System and Multiform Vertical wall formwork system, which offers a fair-faced finish and a minimum joint between panels.
Different panel modules were made in order to convert the hollow surfaces called “pixels” intoa suitableplace to anchor the supports of the climbing system that, in turn, supported the wall formwork with these hollow areas required by the client.
Finally, about 3.600 cubic meters of white concrete were used for theconstruction of a uniquefacade, both in appearance and finish.
Interior slabs with sinuous shapes
7,000 m2 of surface slabs have been carried out. All of them have been implemented with the Alumecano recoverable formwork system and the Mecanoflex slab formwork system. Also, several of the hanging beams have been implemented with CL-40 Shoring System and Vistaform Slabs.
Inner tanks with sinuous shapes
The versatility of the Alisply Circular system made it possible to work on the sumptuous shapes of the inner tanks. Apart from the shape, it was necessary to ensure its water tightness, a function that was successfully accomplished. A total of 6 types of support brackets for 6 different radiuses have been carried out.
Customer satisfaction
The Navarra VPR Company, in charge of the project, has chosen Alsina Formwork to supply a wide variety of its formwork systems for the implementation of this new complex.
The challenge for the Islas Canarias subsidiary has been double: on the one hand, to be able to give the technical and logistical support to carry out this unique work which is located in an emblematic location such as the port of Gran Canaria. On the other hand, to provide Alsina’s systems for the implementation of the various concrete structures and, above all, the quality finish required by the customer.
