Prefabricated structures for creativity

Economical structural design and adequate sound insulation are particularly important in small apartment buildings. With this in mind, the CAN Architects Studio Kft. architectural and SDL Mérnök Iroda Kft. structural plans, the Leier Hungária Kft. prefabricated reinforced concrete products on the outskirts of downtown Győr, the SZA-BI Qualit Kft.

Close to both the vibrant city centre and the train station, the developer is building a total of 36 small apartments, some of which are one-bedroom apartments with one bedroom, while the rest are one-bedroom apartments. The east-west facing apartments are on four levels and are not only ventilated, but each unit has a garden connection, balcony or loggia, according to Gábor Takács, head of the Leier precast reinforced concrete structures business unit.

Both open and protected

The building will have an open transport system, with wind and rain-protected stairs, a lift and a central corridor. Its corridor is divided by slab penetrations, which not only ensure the intimacy of the apartments but also the access of natural light to all levels.

The three-part massing along the corridor and the rhythmically structured balconies give the building its basic character, which also resonates with the complex of buildings of the judgment seat that defines the site.

The heating and hot water supply of the building is provided by a central heating system with heat pump and gas boiler, individual heat meters for each apartment and underfloor heating.

The development includes the creation of a large-scale communal roof garden on the flat roofs, enriching the everyday life of the building's residents, which not only has a green roof design, but the raised attic also allows for visual screening of the mechanical units to be installed later.

Leier products have made the design efficient

Leier Hungária Kft. worked closely with the investor and the design team from the very first days of the project's design, as the aim was to use the latest construction technology and to complete the construction as efficiently as possible and within the shortest possible construction timeframe. To this end, the Leier construction materials

• more than 2.300 m² bark wall,
• 2.000 m² my slab,
• and prefabricated stairs
• and 24 specially shaped prefabricated solid balcony slabs were used.

The Leier bark shapes have been used for various structural elements, which is a special feature. The 20 cm thick Leier walls chosen for the partition walls have an airborne sound insulation value of Rw = 56 dB, which is well above the required value. In the project, bark walls were used not only as partition walls, but also for the unique geometry of the attic walls of the elevator shafts and the communal roof garden, and even as the main external façade wall, where their superior sound insulation was also an advantage, as the building is located near a busy intersection. The external masonry is insulated with 20 cm thick EPS and 20 cm thick rock wool for the fire lanes, giving a total masonry thickness of 40 cm, which meets the thermal transmittance of U=0.18 W/m²K.

Technological curiosity

Prefabricated stairs were chosen to connect the five floors, as the main objective was to combine as many building elements as possible into a complete, well-functioning system. This is why, in addition to the walls, the building's slab structures were also made of Leier Mesterpanel slab slabs, where minimizing structural thickness was an important consideration. The corridors and balconies were also constructed with Schöck Isokorb® thermal bridge breaker elements.

Particular attention was required to design thermal bridge-free connections, since about 40% of the thermal bridges in buildings are caused by the slab junctions of walls and columns. The Schöck Sconnex® W thermal bridge breaker element - used for the first time in Hungary for prefabricated structures - provided a solution.

An exemplary building is born

The training of future professionals is a top priority for Leier Hungária Kft., so the construction site was used as an opportunity for students from the Gábor László Gábor Construction and Woodwork Vocational School of Győr SZC to see how the construction of the Domb Street apartment building is carried out and gain insight into the process of installing the attic panels. The contractor, together with the experts from Leier, also gave a short presentation to the audience on the whole process of prefabricated construction.