Reading experience with a special flair

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Sited in close proximity to the city's opera house and the Munch Museum, the new Deichman library will have 23,500 m² of floor space. As well as offering visitors superb views of the city and the fjord, the five-story building will also have an impressive architecture all of its own. The architectural concept by Lund Hagem in collaboration with Atelier Oslo builds on the large, central open library hall, which extends upward through all five of the structure's levels. The partially transparent façade and diagonal light shafts will flood the interior with natural light throughout daytime hours. The ceiling, with all its edges and angles, is an eye-catching visual of the library's design. To create it, Doka's Engineering and Pre-assembly Service supplied a one-of-a-kind formwork solution that achieved a new dimension in fair-faced concreting.

When it opens in 2020, the modern library will house extensive book collections and offer ample additional space for a cinema, gaming areas, lounges and a restaurant.

Precision engineering for the ceiling formwork

For the extraordinary wrinkle-effect ceiling of the library, the Doka Pre-assembly Service manufactured 526 formwork boxes with a total surface area of 2,600 m². “The staff from Doka did a very professional job, especially with the design. The production at Doka was also very precise. All the different boxes were delivered to the site without any production errors”, asserts Nils Skinnarland, Site Manager at Skanska. The individual formwork panels were designed in a 3D model and then manufactured on CNC (Computerized Numerical Control) milling machines. In all, 1080 drawings had to be made and some 1850 hours were invested in this part of the project alone.

The Doka Pre-assembly Service also developed a plug-in so that on site, the formwork boxes could be precision-installed. "Close, professional cooperation between Engineering and Production – from the concept phase through to implementation – and the work done by qualified specialists and reliable logistics partners are what enabled Doka to undertake a project of this magnitude", emphasizes Josef Berger, Pre-assembly Supervisor Doka Austria, reviewing the crunch success factors on this build. At this time the formwork for the wrinkle-effect ceiling is the single biggest job ever undertaken by the Doka Pre-assembly Service anywhere in the world.

Custom formwork with Doka Pre-assembly Service

For out-of-the-ordinary builds, the Doka Pre-assembly Service supplies the job site with made-to-measure, pre-assembled formwork units. Every year, Doka Amstetten produces about 25,000 m² of custom formwork, and more than 45,000 hours of work go into assembly and disassembly. The assembly plans for the custom elements are drawn up by Doka technicians to meet the project's specific set of requirements. Precision-built custom formwork enhances the surface quality of the finished concrete structures, saves space on the site and streamlines the construction workflow.