seele: Largest all-glass roof for Canada

07/06/2020 | Print view

The assembly on the construction site was alone by the 15m long insulating glass quite a challenge. - © seele — © seele

The assembly on the construction site was alone by the 15m long insulating glass quite a challenge.

In Montreal facade specialist seele implemented a 42m long glass roof. The special thing about it is that the construction consists of only 18 insulating glasses. Have a look at the pictures from the construction site.

The special thing about the glassroof is that it‘s construction consists of only 18 insulating glasses. With the "Grand Hall", seele has already completed its fourth project in Canada.

Steel-glass constructions and element facades are very common in Canada, while all-glass constructions are rather special and unique. The glass roof in Montreal is the project with the largest insulating glass units and glass supports in the whole country.

Here the glass roof construction seen from inside the building. The long glass straps are very impressive.

Why were the logistics and the assembly a big challenge?

In a big city there is almost every building project that meets special requirements for logistics and assembly. In the case of the glass roof on Place Ville Marie, the limited space, a specially required glass vacuum machine and the weather became particularly important.

The rendering shows the architects' design idea.

The 15m long and 2.5m wide insulating glasses, with a dead weight of up to 5.6t, are supported by 8-layer laminated glass supports, which are also 15m long. As a result of the architect's design, the beams are hidden in the wall so that the roof appears to float in order to create maximum transparency. Particular attention is paid to the entrance roofing at both ends: they protrude up to 4.2m beyond the entrance facades and are supported by 14-layer glass beams.

The 2.5t glass vacuum machine with up to 60 suction cups was specially developed in Europe. In order to be able to use the mobile crane on the construction site, the existing construction for the glass assembly had to be reinforced. Since assembly was also carried out in the winter months, additional housings were made in order to be able to carry out the silicone work properly.

These special requirements had to be respected

"The collaboration with the building authorities was very constructive and, as you can see, led to a novelty in Canada," said Sebastian Keller, project manager at seele. In this case, the structural requirements of load transfer are checked with the on-site structural engineer NCK, since the glass roof and the projecting canopies have to bear massive loads due to the extreme weather conditions in Canada.