Focus on the competition that went around the world since 2006

Aluprogetto is an Edimet international award included in the collateral events of Metef, one of the few exhibitions in the world capable of representing the best in technology, plant engineering, applications for aluminium and metals.
Aluprogetto is devoted to existing structures totally or mainly made of aluminium. The competing sections considered in the competition are:
- bridges and gangways;
- civil and industrial structures (buildings, sheds, hangars, stairs, platforms, self-supporting façade claddings);
- mobile structures for temporary uses;
- elements of street fittings with a structural value.
Aluprogetto has developed as a permanent event which takes place in time with itinerant and updated presentations at the main international aluminium appointments. Up until today, Aluprogetto has been presented in Brescia at Metef 2006, in Florence, Dubai City, Mombay, Rome, Moscow in 2007, again in Brescia, at Metef 2008, and in Orlando in this last year.
Following, some of the most significant projects indivituated for 2010 Award are presented.

Hearst Tower - New York (Usa)
Architect: Foster + Partners
Hearst Tower (Fig. 1) is one of the first buildings in Manhattan with the prestigious Leed Gold recognition.

Inaugurated in 2006, it rises 46 floors above the Art Deco building, head office of the same editorial company since 1928. The load bearing structure of the tower is in concrete while the structure of the shell is made from a triangular ‘diagrid’ steel mesh.

The cells are all in aluminium. Total aluminium used: 350 tons of extrusions.

Al Dar Headquarters - Abu Dhabi (Uae)
Architect: MZ & Partners
Aldar Properties PJSC, Abu Dhabi’s first and fully integrated development company, decided the construction of the 51,000 square metres of commercial office space on its mixed use waterfront project, Al Raha Beac (Fig. 2). Aldar Properties will establish its new Headquarter facility within this commercial space. Built with the same structural scheme as Hearst Tower, the building could be the future architectural symbol of the United Arab Emirates.

Architects MZ & Partners conceptualized the stunning round design and ARUP have been appointed as the lead consultants and engineers. Aldar’s new HQ will be the first spherical building in the Middle East, built to satisfy the most demanding international business elite.

The futuristic aluminium and glass exterior, underground parking, turnstile security, marble floors and walls will ensure this is a commercial building fit for 21st century Arabia. It will be a Category A International office. The total aluminium content of the work is 460 tons of extrusions.

Goldman Sachs Building
Architect: Pei Cobb Freed
Main tenant: Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs World Headquarters will feature a curving glass wall facing the Hudson River. The building's first 18 floors are used for 75,000 square feet trading spaces. Located in the 90 acre Battery Park City, at the southwestern tip of Manhattan. Battery Park City includes the World Financial Center, The Goldman Sachs World Headquarters, The New York Mercantile Exchange, and several condominium/apartment building complexes. Goldman Sachs and Hearst Towerare built with ‘Bomb Blast’ Technology; the propagation through structural parts required a significant increase in the dimensions of the studs and of the transverse beams and the use of a medium strength aluminium alloy. Total aluminium used: 1,400 tons of extrusions.

Petrol Station in Schattdorf
Architect: Max Germann, Suisse
The redesigning of the Schattdorf (CH) service area, on the Gothard A2 motorway along the narrow Reuss Valley in the Uri Canton, plays on the superimposition of the natural environment plain compactness and the dynamism of the motorway thoroughfare. The building is inspired by the monolithic geometry of the mountains, but its curtain wall made of aluminium shingles recalls the metallic speed and the technical movement of the traffic flow.
The project has used two Prefa products, ideal to point out technical and aesthetic features: the Prefalz Deluxe double seaming aluminium strips for the cladding, and the Prefalz Deluxe shingles for the facade. Because of the Föhn, the service area is exposed to extreme windy conditions, with dynamic pressure of 1.4 kN/sqm. This required an expert design for the cladding and a detailed planning of the substructure, with the choice of the best materials for resistance and quality of the anchorage. The façade in particular makes up a metallic and technological skin for this building. It is comprised of 12,000 shingles laid in scales and fastened with clips and 25 mm grooved stainless steel nails.

Triennale Design Museum
Architect: Rota e Partners, Italy
The restoration of the famous museum in Milan (Fig. 3) took shape in avant garde aesthetic improvements which have remodernised the complex and given the interior space a dynamic and renewed appearance. The new architectonic language foresaw the use of aluminium, synonymous with lightness and eco-sustainability.

The firm Rota & Partners designed the futuristic and poetic wall that introduces the museum course: an aluminium ‘fabric’, a technological curtain that stimulates to discover the museum’s exhibition space. The self-supporting panels Mirawall are realised in precoated aluminium sheet produced by Otefalgroup.

 The self-supporting elements joined with the shapeable structural panels Doluflex are juxtaposed to one another alternating different surface finishes: glossy mirrored aluminium in contrast with prepainted orange aluminium. The result is an aesthetically and modern pleasing product which guarantees a visual prismatic texture well consisting with its function of entrance of the Design Museum.

Eni Coal Repository
Built in Civitavecchia, near Rome, the structure (Fig. 4) is the coal repository of the Eni electrical power plant; the structure is 57 metres high and 145 metres long, built using about 1,000 tons of large aluminium profiles.


America’s cup building 'Veles e Vents'
Project by: David Chipperfield
Situated at the heart of a project to reclaim Valencia’s industrialised harbour area, the ‘Veles e Vents’ building was designed to host the America’s Cup team. The building is built using a welldefined ‘palette’ of materials, one of these is the pre-painted aluminium panels used for the ceilings coverings. The ceilings and relevant working plans were all produced by SADI using 21 tonnes of Otefal pre-painted aluminium Mirawall.

A giant Rubik’s cube
Project: Arkpabi Studio
Giorgio Palù, Michele Bianchi The lodgings of Via Doberdò in the north of Milan represent an optimal example of improvement in housing quality due to architectural innovation. Unusual geometric cuts and bright facets produce equilibrium and rigor, in which the emotional components that have accompanied the entire design study are revealed. The structure of volumes recalls a ‘cubist’ conception of architecture. Large windows are interrupted by glass cubes that protrude into the void, and altern ate with walls coated in sheets full of colors. The metal covering thus becomes a giant Rubik’s cube, formed by solid 29 tonnes aluminium sheets Mirawall and DMAX, Otefal pre-painted products that combine the best of aesthetics and technology.

'Le crystal de la montagne'
Designers: Beique, Legault, Thuot Architectes
The condo-hotel Le Crystal de la Montagne is the new landmark of Boulevard René-Lévesque, in the heart of Montreal. The edifice is characterized in the urban fabric by the use of an innovative aluminum skin, which, associated with an architectural glass and cement texture, contributes to the spatial definition of the geometry. Designed by the architectural studio Beique, Legault, Thuot, the complex is an ‘architectural gem’, also due to the choice of an aluminium 2 to 3 mm, continuous liquid painted skin of DMAX, produced by Gruppo Otefal. 52 tons of DMAX aluminum have been transformed by the builder into 5,800 m2 of panels, designed, built and assembled to measure for the condo-hotel.

Conclusive remarks
The good success of the Aluprogetto award clearly confirms that aluminium structures for building and construction have an encouraging present and a convincing future. The examples described show that in many countries, architects and design engineers have been trying to make the most of the typical properties of aluminium (lightness, latitude of strength, durability, aestethical value, easy assembly, recyclability). Aluprogetto is in progress for Metef 2010, with the feeling that more and more aluminium structures will be produced through the efforts of architects, engineers and builders, given that day by day increases anywhere the technical knowledge of the unique advantages of this material.

Note
Special thanks goes to Alpewa Srl, Bodega G.e C. SpA, Metra SpA and Otefal SpA for the help offered in collecting the material