Lafarge - Villa Navarra

P.16
VILLA
NAVARRA
ASSEMBLY
A traditional
journeyman’s
task
With the on site assembly of the panels, the epic
story of the roof runs into the traditional world
of construction, its ups and downs and its constraints.
The architect is in his element, caught between his fascination
for the latest technology in materials and his ancestral attraction
for the building site and the men who work there.
The magic of this roof with its pronounced cantilever was not
immediately obvious. Apart from the opinions sought after
beforehand from experts in the field, in particular Jacques
Resplendino, the Setra engineer who compiled the standard for
UHPFCs, the assembly was subject to a methodological
approach also involving the stone mason Ortunio. The installation
of these panels weighing approximately 3 tonnes each
and brought by lorry to the plot, was at times epic, “similar to
the passage of the ship over the hill in the film Fitzcaraldo by
Werner Herzog,” comments the architect with hindsight. “Mutual
trust was created from one end to the other of the chain, making
the operation a story of fellowship,” he likes to say.
Lifted by a field crane, the panels were positioned on the two
supporting beams, then pushed against the preceding one by
being slid sideways and finally propped. They are joined by
mortise and tenon at the bulge in the ribs by the positioning of
a socket subsequently injected with resin. The fixture to the back
beam is achieved by the previously mentioned sunken braces,
LESS IS MORE
The precast and the work site are forgotten;
the roof structure dominates the landscape
and is reflected in the water.
P.17