Twenty weeks with built-in bridges

The S.A.M.O. Építésziroda, who also designed the Groupama Arena, has adapted to the milieu of the city centre with a facade that mimics a solid quadrangle and a split-level elevation that sharply separates the entrance from the eclectic streetscape, GEM Plann Kft., a condominium built in the general construction of GEM Plann Kft., which predominantly uses Leier prefabricated elements.

The narrow façade windows are visually further extended by full-height frames that conceal the 38-apartment Dembinszky Street in Elisabethváros. To make better use of the narrow, long plot, the L-shaped building has a rendered façade and a corbelled sheet-metal roof, almost entirely built-in.

Firewall, with insulation

As we learned from Gábor Takács, Leier Precast Reinforced Concrete Structures Business Unit Manager, "the main focus of this project was to build as quickly as possible with as little on-site work as possible, and the precast bark walls of Leier were ideally suited to this.

These were used very extensively by the contractors, including for the basement walls, but also for the interior partition walls, the partition walls between the corridors and the apartments, and the elevator core."

In Budapest, bark walls have been used as firewalls in many places, and the designers applied the proven technology to this condominium, to which the external thermal insulation was added in the factory, thus facilitating construction on site.

The designers have also chosen prefabricated staircases from the Leier range, which run the full height of the building.

"What is particularly interesting is that the stairs arrived on site with the surface already finished and will not be cold-finished later. The same technology is also used for the balcony slabs, which have a so-called matted surface"

- added the business unit manager. The Leier prefabricated elements used in the construction:

• waterproof basement wall,
• sound-insulating masonry,
• staircase reinforcing wall,
• elevator shaft,
• external facade masonry,
• firewalls with external thermal insulation,
• coffin lid.

Eight days, one level

András Komlós, managing director and project manager of the general contractor GEM Plann Kft., stressed that the prefabricated elements of Leier were chosen for several reasons: on the one hand, the construction is taking place in a narrow, downtown area; therefore, the fast construction and optimization of organization were also very important aspects. The time needed for material storage and preparation is much shorter.

"We built a floor in about eight days," he said, "and the house was finished in 20 weeks, which is an excellent result."

As the basement is naturally below ground level, it was necessary to ensure that it was watertight, which was perfectly achieved with the Leier technology. It is also important that the prefabricated technology does not compromise on achieving the right heat transmission and sound insulation values, since for a 25 cm thick bark wall and 16 cm of graphite insulation, the heat transmission is U = 0.18 W/m²K; and the calculated airborne sound insulation value of the Leier bark wall is Rw = 54 dB, even for the 18 cm thick element.

It is no coincidence that the 700 m² plot of land, with almost 4000 m² of usable floor area, was used to build an eight-storey (basement, ground floor, four full floors, two levels with attic) condominium of 4600 m2² of land, 2600 m² of bark slabs, 42 solid balcony slabs of different geometries and 13 staircases from Leier. As the manager's summing-up words made clear:

"It was very convenient to build with prefabricated panels, as the technology helped us to build quickly and efficiently."