Concrete Today May 2010 - the Irish Concrete Federation

concrete today - techrete - olympic village, london 2012
Precast Cladding Panels by Techrete Ltd.
Ireland’s leading Precast concrete panel
manufacturer, Techrete Ltd., is currently
involved in the construction of apartment
buildings in London’s Olympic village. The
village will house the Olympic athletes for
the 2012 Olympics and will comprise a
series of mansion blocks, each containing
6 to 7 buildings, arranged in courtyard
formation and varying in height from eight
to twelve stories. Techrete were chosen as
the Precast panel manufacturers, for four
mansion blocks primarily on the basis that
the company could demonstrate the ability
to deal with the challenges posed by the
project, in particular its complexity and tight
programme and logistics.
The project posed a further unusual
challenge, in that the Architects specification
required that two of the buildings should be
clad in reconstructed stone panels, faced in
frieze type images, replicated from 5 of the
famous Parthenon Marbles (see text in side
panel) the majority of which are currently
housed in the British Museum. The
architects selected these images specifically
to reflect the Greek origins and invoke the
ancient spirit of the Games.
Replicating the images from the
Parthenon Marbles posed a significant
challenge which was eventually resolved by
the use of scanning technology. The use of
this technology negated the need for casts
Precast Cladding Panels
by Techrete Ltd.
to be taken, which could potentially have
caused damage to the marbles and therefore
was not a viable option. The Scanning
equipment produced 3-D image files which
were then transferred to a CNC (5 axis)
routing machine to create a positive MDF
(wooden) carved copy of the originals, from
which rubber moulds were produced to
cast the reconstructed stone panels. This
was a complicated process which required
approvals at all stages and a high degree of
technical expertise.
Precast Cladding Panels
by Techrete Ltd.
The architect’s specification required
that the frieze images be replicated at three
times the scale of the original marbles. The
use of digital technology facilitated this
aspect of the specification. Another aspect
of the reproduction is that all elements of
the frieze images which could act as rain
shelves were filled-in (in the construction of
the mould). This however does not detract
from the appearance, since the panels
are generally viewed from the underside
(looking upwards) and therefore the three
dimensional appearance is retained.
The use of frieze panels in modern
buildings is rare and this is due in part to
the influence of the modern movement in
WHAT ARE THE
PARTHENON MARBLES?
When the Parthenon was built between
447BC and 432BC, three sets of
sculptures, the metopes, the frieze and
the pediments, were created to adorn it.
Of these, the metopes and the frieze were
part of the structure of the Parthenon
itself. They were not carved first
and then put in place, high up on the
Parthenon, but were carved on the sides
of the Parthenon itself after it had been
constructed.
The metopes were individual sculptures
in high relief. There were 92 metopes, 32
on each side and 14 at each end and each
metope was separated from its neighbours
by a simple architectural decoration called
a triglyph. The metopes were placed
around the building, above the outside
row of columns and showed various
mythical battles. The North side showed
scenes from the Trojan war; the South
side showed a battle between the Greeks
and the Centaurs - part man, part horse;
the East side showed the Olympian gods
fighting giants and the West side showed
a battle between Greeks and Amazons.
The frieze, 160 metres long, was placed
above the inner row of columns, so it was
not so prominently displayed. It is one
long, continuous sculpture in low relief,
showing the procession to the temple at
the Panathenaic festival.
Not all of the Parthenon Marbles,
however, survive down to the present
day. There were originally 115 panels
in the frieze. Of these, ninety-four still
exist, either intact or broken. Thirty six
are in Athens, fifty-six are in the British
Museum and one is in the Louvre. Of
the original ninety two metopes, thirtynine
are in Athens and fifteen are in
London. Seventeen pedimental statues,
including a caryatid and a column from
the Erechtheion are also in the British
Museum. So the Parthenon Marbles are
almost equally divided, half in London
and half in Athens.
architecture, which rejected all forms of
ornamentation. A more relaxed attitude has
developed in recent times, and although
designers continue to successfully produce
pure forms, there is also recognition that
there is room in some instances for a more
‘human’ architecture.
The advanced panel manufacturing
methods used by Techrete in the Olympic
village has broader applications, and could
be used to depict scenes from Celtic lore
(for example) for use in Precast school
buildings or indeed industrial buildings.
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