Ductal-Fassade Louis Vuitton in Aventura/Florida - Derzeit größte gussgeformte Ductal-UHPC-Gebäudehülle in den USA

Ductal Façade Louis Vuitton in Aventura/Florida - currently largest molded Ductal UHPC building envelope in the US

The design objective to create a unique, large surface identity for fashion company Louis Vuitton lead to an innovative façade solution which uses high-strength Ductal LaFarge concrete (UHPC = ultra- high performing concrete) as open-molded panel elements in a rain-screen over-clad application, which give the existing façade an entirely new appearance. Designing a finely adjustable sub-structure for under-cut anchors following 3D laser scans on site combined with Solidworks Software modeling of all envelope layers, a practically joint-free façade surface was created, which is based on the flower-like Louis Vuitton emblem circles wrapping the existing building in a completely new fashion. The following article describes the planning procedure for this second skin from a structural and façade engineering perspective, which is also designed based on high hurricane wind cladding loading and small-scale 1:1 anchor testing data in combination with finite element modeling for the not-yet fully standardized Ductal material.