Fire safety

Text and images: ArcelorMittal Construction

Offering aesthetic appeal, high performance, sustainability, and safety, carrier panel solutions are becoming increasingly popular with architects and specifiers seeking the perfect facade for their projects.

The facade, a complex part of the building

As buildings account for roughly 40% of global final energy use, sourcing sustainable ways to construct buildings with optimised energy performance is of increasing importance (researchgate). A building’s facade directly impacts the overall environmental footprint of a development, as well as the end users' comfort.

Designing a building’s facade means meeting complex aesthetic and technical demands while taking into account humidity, light, appearance, and weather-resistance as well as multiple safety, engineering, and energy efficiency regulations. A carrier panel system enables project specifiers to meet all of these needs due to its factory guaranteed performance and versatility.

What is a carrier panel solution?

A carrier panel facade solution consists of a metal faced sandwich panel, which works as both insulation and carrying structure; a fixing system to connect the outer skin of the building to the panel; an air spacer; and an external skin, which is the visible part of the facade. It is an all-in-one solution that offers architects and specifiers a way to lower a building’s energy demand whilst remaining functional and aesthetically pleasing.

Carrier panel systems also allow for reduced building costs due to the ease and speed with which a facade can be installed, repaired, or revamped. Carrier panel systems also deliver a great deal of architectural freedom as they are suited to a range of external skins, textures, profiles, and custom colours. For architects and specifiers, this means almost any design is possible - without compromising on build quality and technical performance.

What are the benefits of a carrier panel system?

Carrier panel systems are designed for projects which need to utilise the benefits of a sandwich panel wall whilst also offering creative freedom for the facade design. The system provides office buildings, collective residential buildings, and leisure and shopping facilities with functional and visually attractive external cladding. There are even more benefits to carrier panel systems:

•     Faster build times

By removing the need for conventional building materials and methods, insulation, and some subframe structures, carrier panel systems ensure the application of facades is simple and quick. By rendering a building wind and waterproof immediately after application is completed, the internal fit-out can be started immediately. All-in-one systems also mean fewer complex products, suppliers, and deliveries, so your project can stay on schedule.

•     More sustainable

Quality insulated sandwich panels and cladding boast excellent sustainability credentials. In addition to faster build times, the speed and simplicity of installation cuts down significantly on emissions in the construction phase, while their light weight reduces emissions in transit. Predominantly made from steel, the embodied energy of carrier panels (that is, the energy required to produce them) is also low. For example, 40% of the steel used by ArcelorMittal Construction comes from recycled sources. Finally, thanks largely to their reduced thermal bridging and superior air tightness and insulation, carrier panels result in fewer emissions over the course of a building’s lifecycle.

•     High performance

From excellent thermal performance to fire safety, air tightness, sound insulation, and load-bearing qualities, carrier panel systems offer long-lasting, durable construction solutions which can be adapted to any design with total flexibility of external skins, colours, profiles, and textures.

ArcelorMittal Construction carrier panel solutions: freedom to design

As a leading manufacturer of smart building systems, ArcelorMittal Construction’s carrier panel solutions offer sustainability, technical performance, and aesthetic appeal as well as complete architectural freedom for designers and specifiers. Our interlocking carrier panel systems are also designed for fast and easy application and regulations compliance.

Archisol® is a carrier panel with visible fixings that has been developed with high performance in mind to meet new standards in thermal insulation: the system combines superior weather and heat resistance with outstanding airtightness and low thermal transmittance. Other benefits include very good mechanical resistance to wind actions, allowing for larger spans.

Also available is Promisol® S Hybrid, a double skin facade solution with hidden fixings and (similarly to Archisol®) outstanding thermal insulation and durability. In addition, Promisol® S Hybrid has superb fire reaction standards and is Fire EI30 certified.

Both solutions deliver limitless aesthetic freedom of design; have no complex proprietary system or installation guidelines; and, unlike other systems available on the market, use sustainable organic coatings.

Our technical support team studies every project case by case to provide the best solutions in terms of mechanical resistance and thermal insulation. We will also assist you in choosing the most suitable aesthetical solution from our broad range of external cladding products, from architectural profiles and sidings to cassette systems - all with a wide choice of finishes and colours.

On 16 March, French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal became the newest laureates of the prestigious Pritzker Prize - the highest distinction in the world of architecture. Known for their private and social housing, public space, and institutional building design, Lacaton and Vassal meld sustainability with respect for pre-existing structures.

Sustainable designs that favour expanding space

Lacaton and Vassal, from the eponymous agency they founded in 1987, are known for their architecture that infuses humanism with sustainable and affordable designs that favour the expansion of space. They also received the Sustainable Architecture Prize in 2018. Their most notable works include: 14 houses for the Cité Manifeste in Mulhouse (2005), the Bordeaux University Management Sciences Centre (2008), the rehabilitation of the Bois-le-Prêtre Tower in Paris with ArcelorMittal metallic coated steel (2010), the transformation of 530 housing units - buildings G, H, I - in the Grand Parc district of Bordeaux (2017; with Frédéric Druot and Christophe Hutin), and a residential and office building in Chêne-Bourg, Switzerland (2020).

Their work is grounded in an intention to respond to ecological and social imperativeness, especially in the sphere of urban housing. “They accomplish this through a powerful sense of space and materials that creates architecture as strong in its forms as in its convictions, as transparent in its aesthetic as in its ethics.” (Pritzker press release)

Lightness and simplicity

With the use of winter gardens and balconies, the architects economically expand living space, conserving energy and bringing the outdoors in. “Our job is to solve constraints and problems and find spaces that can create uses, emotions, and feelings” explains Jean-Philippe Vassal. “At the end of this process and all of these efforts, there must be lightness and simplicity, when everything that came before was so complex." (Pritzker press release)

Discover how Lacatan and Vassal, along with Frédéric Druot, brought this breathability to the constrained space of the Bois-le-Prêtre Tower through renovation in our case study.

Text:
Constructalia

Images:
Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal photo courtesy of Laurent Chalet
ArcelorMittal

Steel sheet piles have been used for decades in the construction of underground car parks, and this trend is increasing as the demand for underground car parks rises in densely populated areas. Steel sheet pile walls are a sustainable solution for underground car parks up to three or four levels below the surface.

This R&D report explores design methods, vertical loads and bearing capacity, innovative installation techniques, fire design methods, design software, sealing systems, and sustainability for underground car parks with steel sheet piles.

Paper abstract

Vehicle traffic and lack of parking space is one of the main challenges for big cities. Especially in city centres, land is very expensive and the trend to increase parking capacity is to build underground structures. In this article, an innovative, economical, and environmentally-friendly solution for underground car parks built with steel sheet piles is described. Several aspects like fire safety, impervious walls, vertical bearing capacity, environmental impacts, and reduction of traffic due to construction vehicles are discussed.

Research paper, abstract, images:
© João Martins, ArcelorMittal Commercial RPS; Michał Januszewski, ArcelorMittal Commercial Long Polska

Intro:
Constructalia

Related link(s)

R&D report: Innovative and sustainable steel sheet pile solutions for undergound car parks