Brise-soleil in i.design: Ciments Calcia's high-performance mortar

Brise-soleil in i.design EFFIX ARCA: Ciments Calcia's ultra-high-performance mortar

The ultra-high-performance mortar i.design EFFIX ARCA was already known for its use in making concrete cladding which, fitted with an adjustable aluminium framework tied to a continuous load-bearing structure, became an ingenious external thermal insulation (ETICS) facade cladding.

Today, Ciments Calcia is unveiling a new application of its flagship mortar, which combines aesthetic appeal with technical performance.

In Champtoceaux (49), it was used to make the sun breakers of the new Pôle Enfance (children's centre) designed by the firm NOMADE architectes. This cladding brightens the buildings with its light aniseed colour while effectively filtering the sun's rays for the comfort of the occupants!

A large building with contemporary architecture, the Pôle Enfance in Champtoceaux houses, in a single volume, a school canteen (kitchen and dining room with 320 seats) and an after-school care centre (activity and rest rooms, office) which, thanks to a system of movable partitions, can be shared. Spaces common to both facilities, as well as the technical rooms needed to run the building, complete the layout.

The firm NOMADE architectes has given this public building its own identity. And it must be said that the choice to dress the (largely glazed) facades with a series of vertical sun breakers in coloured concrete contributes greatly to this.

Although their function is to soften the light, the sun breakers designed by NOMADE architectes are full of character: tilted out of plumb, they give the impression of blinds about to be opened. A shape that makes sense for filtering the sun's rays!

The precaster Soriba was entrusted by the company Delaunay, contracted for the structural work, with producing these 374 linear metres of concrete elements serving as sun breakers.

About a hundred pieces with a useful section of 7 x 15 cm and great heights (3 m 40 and 5 m) were thus produced. And for this, the i.design EFFIX ARCA mortar proved the most suitable.

Besides its self-compacting and ready-to-use qualities, it offers high fluidity that makes it easier to pour the concrete into the metal and wood moulds custom-made by Soriba. Above all, its ultra-high performance helped achieve the required strength without complex reinforcement: only a single iron rod runs through each sun breaker.

?Given the slenderness of the pieces, using reinforced concrete was impossible. Using the i.design EFFIX ARCA mortar proved to be the best option,? confirms Stéphane Garnier, CEO of Soriba.

Note that Soriba opted for an original installation system to eliminate any risk of buckling, that is, the pieces breaking under their own weight through vertical bending: galvanised steel inserts built into both ends of the pieces made it possible to hang them from the top and hold them at the bottom, to stress them as little as possible.

And Marine Jappé, project manager at NOMADE architectes, concluded: ?This very clean-lined project consists of two volumes to which we wanted to give a monolithic appearance.

The sun breakers, whose look is similar to that of patterned concrete walls, give real unity to the whole. Above all, we wanted them to be very slender. Only a fibre-reinforced concrete allowed us to achieve this result: very thin, smooth pieces with no defects.?

Moreover, the light colour of the concrete opened up possibilities for the architect, who chose to cover them with an aniseed-green stain, both soft and luminous. Perfectly smooth and with low porosity, the concrete will keep its original appearance for a long time.